A method statement is a written description of how a piece of work will be carried out safely, in the order it will happen, with the people, equipment and precautions for each stage. It is the answer to a question a risk assessment does not address: not what could go wrong, but what you are actually going to do. Clients and principal contractors ask for one because it is the only document that lets them see whether your plan fits their site, and it is the document most often written last and least carefully.
What it contains, at minimum
The scope of the work and its boundaries. The site, the access and the working area. The people, their roles and the competence each role needs. The plant, equipment and materials. Then the sequence itself: stage by stage, with what must be in place before each stage begins, from isolations and permits to exclusion zones and signage. Finally, the emergency arrangements and the circumstances in which the work stops. A statement missing the last of those is not finished.
How it differs from a risk assessment, exactly
The assessment is a table of judgements about hazards and controls; the method statement is a sequence of instructions. The same control can appear in both, and it should: the assessment says an exclusion zone is required, the method statement says who forms it, when, how far it extends and who checks it before the lift begins. Firms that write one and pretend it covers both end up with either a set of hazards nobody has planned around, or a plan whose safety assumptions were never tested.
Write it for a competent stranger
The test that improves method statements fastest is to imagine the supervisor who was going to run the job is off and someone equally competent but new to this site has to follow it. Every place where they would have to ask a question is a place the statement is thin. This test also kills generic text quickly, because a competent stranger gains nothing from a paragraph about the general hazards of the trade and everything from the location of the isolation valve.
It has a lifecycle, and the lifecycle is where the record matters
Statements are issued, questioned, revised and reissued, and on a live site that can happen several times. What matters afterwards is being able to say which version was in force on a given day and who had it. That is a record problem rather than a writing problem, and it is what the paid plan on this site is for; the free risk assessment form worksheet prices the assessment half that has to be revised alongside it.
Questions people ask about what is a method statement
What is the difference between a method statement and a risk assessment?
The risk assessment identifies what could cause harm and what controls it; the method statement describes how the work will be done, in sequence, with the resources and preconditions for each stage. They are usually supplied together as a RAMS pack because a client needs both to judge whether your work is safe on their site.
How do you write a method statement?
Start with the sequence, not the hazards: write down what actually happens first, second and third on the day. Then add, for each stage, who does it, with what, and what must already be in place. Finish with emergencies and the stop trigger. Writing it in that order stops it turning into a description of your trade.
Who signs the method statement?
Whoever is competent to say the method is sound and will be followed, usually the supervisor or manager responsible for the work, and it should be dated and versioned. On site the people carrying out the work are normally briefed on it and that briefing is recorded, because a statement nobody has read has not changed how the job is done.