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Temporary works: the register, the check category and the permit to load
Falsework, formwork, propping, trench support, scaffolding loaded by something other than people. The works nobody is paid for, which fail more often than the permanent works they exist to build.
Temporary works are everything erected to enable the permanent works and then taken away. They carry load, they are frequently designed in a hurry, and because they are not the deliverable they attract less scrutiny than anything else on site. BS 5975 exists to put procedural control around that.
The roles
| Role | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Designated Individual | Appointed at organisation level. Owns the procedure itself and appoints the coordinators. |
| Temporary Works Coordinator (TWC) | Appointed per project. Maintains the register, sees that each item is designed and checked to the right category, and issues the permits to load and to strike. |
| Temporary Works Supervisor (TWS) | Appointed where the TWC needs eyes on a particular item. Supervises erection against the design and reports back — the TWS does not take the coordinator’s decisions. |
The design check categories
Every temporary works design gets a check, and the category decides how independent the checker has to be. It is not a measure of how much checking is done; it is a measure of distance from the designer.
| Category | Typically | Checked by |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Standard solutions and restricted, simple cases | Another member of the design team |
| 1 | Simple designs | Somebody not involved in the design, within the same organisation |
| 2 | More complex or unusual designs | Somebody from a different team, not involved in the design |
| 3 | Complex or innovative designs, or those with unfamiliar load paths | An independent organisation |
Categories differ slightly between editions and between company procedures, so a register should record the category that was actually assigned and who assigned it, rather than a number with no author.
The permit to load is not a date
The failure this is all built to prevent is simple to describe: something is erected, somebody is keen to keep the job moving, and load goes on before the erection has been inspected against the design. The paperwork catches up afterwards and records a permit that was issued before anybody looked.
A permit to load should follow an inspection of what was actually built. A permit that follows a date on a programme authorises whatever happens to be standing there.
The same applies to striking. A permit to strike should follow evidence that the striking condition was met — cube results, a concrete maturity figure, a named person’s sign-off — not the passage of a number of days.
What a register should hold
- The item, its reference, and which part of the permanent works it serves
- The design brief — what it has to carry, and what it was asked to do
- The designer and the design reference
- The check category, the checker, their organisation, and the date
- The erection date, and the inspection of what was erected
- The permit to load: issued to whom, from when, on what conditions
- The striking condition, and the evidence that it was met
- The strike date
How Veystrum handles it
Veystrum holds this as a register rather than a folder of documents, and the rules are enforced by the database rather than by convention. A permit to load cannot be recorded against an item with no erection inspection behind it. An item carrying load on a design that was never checked appears on the exception report, with the date the load went on. Withdrawing a permit does not unsay the load — the register keeps both facts, because an investigation two years later asks what was true on a day that has already happened.