The work environment plan should work as a governing document for how the prevention of health and safety risks in the project will be conducted and how the different designers and contractors will be coordinated. The purpose of the plan is to prevent work environment risks in the construction phase.

When is a work environment plan required?

A work environment plan should be drawn up if:

1. any of the works with risks in 12 a § in the Swedish Work Environment Authority´s provisions (AFS 1999:3) Building and civil engineering work, will be performed, or
   
   
2. the work is of such an extent that a prior notice to the Swedish Work Environment Authority needs to be submitted. That is when
   a. the construction or civil engineering works will last for more than 30 working days on the construction site and more than 20 people will be working simultaneously on the site at any occasion, or
   b. the workers on the construction site will all together work more than 500 days in total.

Work with risks that requires a Work Environment Plan

If the construction project requires a work environment plan, it should be drawn up during the planning and design phase. The plan must be complete before the first building or civil engineering work is started at the construction site.

Who is responsible for the work environment plan?

The building work environment coordinator for the planning and design phase (Bas-P) is responsible for drawing up the work environment plan, if one is required. Bas-P should do this during the planning and design to have it complete at least when the first building or civil engineering work is started at the construction site.

The building work environment coordinator for the construction phase (Bas-U) should carry out the necessary adjustments to the plan if changes occur, so that it matches the actual conditions on the construction site and the methods that are used. Bas-U should also make sure the plan is accessible at the construction site as soon as the site is established, and update it when needed.

The client has an overall responsibility for that a work environment plan is drawn up and is accessible when the building and civil engineering work is started, and that the plan is being updated.

The work environment plan should include:

A. The rules to be applied at the construction site.

B. A description of how the health and safety work in the construction project be organised, for example how it will be managed.

C. A description of the work environment measures that should be taken during the following work that will be performed in the construction phase, so that the work environment will be good:

• work with risks of falls from height, 2 metres or more,
• work where someone can be buried under earth or sink down in loose soil,
• work with certain chemical or biological substances,
• work where someone can be exposed for ionizing radiation,
• work near high voltage power lines,
• work entailing the risk of drowning,
• work in wells and tunnels or underground work,
• work carried out underwater with diving equipment,
• work carried out in a caisson with a compressed-air atmosphere
• work involving the use of explosives
• work involving the launch, assembly or dismantling of heavy building components or heavy shuttering elements,
• work in a place or area with passing vehicular traffic, or as demolition of load-bearing structures or health-endangering materials or substances.

D. If the building or civil engineering work will be carried out in a place where other activity will be on-going at the same time, this should be taken into consideration in the work environment plan.

Here you can read more about the works with risks that requires that a work environment plan is drawn up. For those works, there need to be measures described in the plan.

Guide for Work environment plan

The construction industry in Sweden has developed their own guidance for the work environment plan. It describes how you can draw up a work environment plan:

The guide for Work environment plan, Byggföretagen´s website, opens in a new window

Building and civil engineering work, (AFS1999:3Eng), provisions

Sanction fees within construction

Since there are many high risk operations in construction work, there are sanction fees in the provisions about building and civil engineering work (AFS 1999:3) for the following deficiencies:

• The client has failed to send a prior notification to the Swedish Work Environment Authority before work begins, when that is required (construction work of a certain level of extent)
  
  
• No work environment plan for the whole project is drawn up before the construction site is established, even though such a plan is required (a prior notification is required or work with certain risks will be executed in the construction project)
  
  
• Building or civil engineering work is executed where there is a risk that someone falls two meters or more and fall protection is lacking.

Sanction fees