At CRAMS we understand that health and safety terminology is frequently used but rarely understood; that’s why we’ve created a glossary covering the most common workplace safety terms.
You can share this jargon buster within your organisation to ensure nothing gets lost in translation.
Health and safety glossary
Accident
An accident is an unplanned event which has caused harm to an individual.
Administrator
A CRAMS Administrator can create new content and edit existing content. However, they are not allowed to put this content into circulation – only a competent person can do this. They can control user administration, including removing old accounts or adding new accounts and resetting passwords.
Competent Person
A Competent Person is the person who has the highest level of privileges on your site. This person can create and remove documents, they are the only user with the rights to review and set live a new policy or CRAMS, on top of having all the access an Administrator has.
COSHH
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health is the UK law which requires the control of substances that could cause an accident or incident. Read more about what a COSHH product is on the HSE website.
CRAMS
Comprehensive Risk Assessed Method Statement – as well as the name of the software offered by Genilogic Ltd, CRAMS is the main feature of the software where a risk assessment is linked to its method statement to create a safe system of work which is then assigned to occupations or users within the organisation. A CRAMS is a health and safety compliant document when used as intended.
CRAMS Champion
A CRAMS Champion is someone who has received full CRAMS training and is a nominated within an organisation to manage user accounts, help troubleshoot access issues and log technical support queries with CRAMS if required. A CRAMS Champion must have either Administrator or Competent Person access.
HASAWA1974
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is the UK legislation which determines what an employer must do to ensure the safety of themselves, their staff or anyone else who could come to harm as a result of the business operations. More information can be found on the HSE website.
Hazard
A hazard is something that could potentially cause an accident or incident if not removed or controlled.
Incident
An incident is an unplanned event which has caused harm or damage to an asset and/or caused financial loss.
Live
Live is a state that a CRAMS or Policies can be in, this means they are currently in circulation and assigned to any occupations or people that have been specified within the document.
Pending Control
Pending Control is a state which a CRAMS can be put into when the control identified as being required to mitigate the risk associated with a hazard has not yet been put in place. A CRAMS which is Pending Control would have an expected resolution date which would prompt a reminder to the competent person on that date to ask them to review whether all controls have been put in place – at which point they could extend the pending control expectancy time or set the CRAMS live for circulation.