The Accreditation Evidence Pack: Every Document UK Schemes Ask For

If you have been asked for CHAS, SMAS Worksafe, SafeContractor or Constructionline and you are staring at four different portals, here is the thing nobody says out loud: the accreditation documents for subcontractors are broadly the same ten items in all four. What changes is the wording of the question, the upload box it goes in, and — the bit that actually bites — how recently the document has to be dated. Build the pack once, keep it current, and the second scheme is an afternoon's work rather than another month of evenings.

TL;DR

Every SSIP-based scheme assesses against the same 15 SSIP Core Criteria, so the evidence pack is near-identical: health and safety policy, risk assessments and method statements, COSHH assessments, training records, insurance certificates, competent advice details, accident and enforcement history, workforce consultation evidence, subcontractor checks and welfare arrangements. The real difference is freshness, not content — the SSIP Core Criteria require the policy statement of intent to be signed by a director and dated within the previous 12 months, and Constructionline's Once For All health and safety question set repeatedly asks for evidence "dated within the last 12 months". Schemes above plain SSIP (Constructionline Gold, CHAS Elite and anything else carrying the Common Assessment Standard) add a second pack: two years' accounts, insurance details, environmental, quality, EDI, anti-bribery and modern slavery. Smaller firms get a proportionate approach, not an exemption. The admin that kills you is not writing the documents — it is re-dating them and re-uploading them to each scheme, on each scheme's own renewal clock.

What documents do accreditation schemes actually ask for?

The table below is the common core. It is drawn from the published SSIP Core Criteria, Constructionline's Once For All health and safety question set (October 2025) and CHAS's own joining guidance — three schemes, one list.

Why does nearly every document need to be dated within the last 12 months?

Assessors are checking that health and safety is being managed now, not that a consultant wrote something impressive in 2023. That is the mechanism behind the date rules: a signature inside the last 12 months is the cheapest possible proof that someone senior looked at the thing recently. CHAS puts it plainly in its own guidance — contractors are expected to have a health and safety policy dated within the last 12 months and signed by the person responsible for health and safety.

The practical consequence is that your evidence pack has three separate clocks running, and they do not line up:

1. Certificate expiry — your employers' liability policy renews on its own date.
2. Scheme renewal — CHAS, SMAS, SafeContractor and Constructionline each renew annually from the date you joined, not from 1 April.
3. The 12-month evidence window — the rolling cut-off that silently ages your policy, RAMS and COSHH examples.

Worked example: one firm, two schemes, one expired insurance certificate

Take an electrical and mechanical firm with 12 engineers — CHAS Standard renewing 14/03, Constructionline Gold renewing 28/09, employers' liability insurance expiring 30/06.

In March they upload the current EL certificate to CHAS and pass. On 30/06 the policy renews and a new certificate lands by email. In September they submit to Constructionline Gold with the new certificate. Both schemes now hold a valid-looking file — but the copy in the CHAS portal expired on 30/06 and will sit there, stale, until next March. If a main contractor pulls the CHAS record in October to check cover before a £5k maintenance contract, that is what they see.

Same story with the RAMS. The two site-specific risk assessments used for the March submission came off a job finished in late 2025. They are fine in March 2026. By the time the 2027 renewal comes round they are over 12 months old and have to be swapped for examples from a current job — which means going back through the van, the phone and the WhatsApp thread to find them.

None of that is hard work. It is just work that has to happen twice a year, on two dates nobody wrote down. That is the whole problem this guide exists to name — and it is why our guide to accreditation renewal deadlines sits alongside this one.

What changes between schemes — the format, not the substance

All SSIP member schemes assess against the same 15 core criteria. SMAS states that its Worksafe assessment follows the 15 core criteria but condenses them into 10 questions; CHAS asks you to work through its assessment modules in the Veriforce/My CHAS portal. Same evidence, different packaging.

The second column of work only starts at Common Assessment Standard level. Constructionline's Gold and Platinum supplier guide asks for full accounts for the last two years (or, for a sole trader, a profit and loss account or self-assessment tax return for the last two years), an environmental management policy approved by a director and reviewed within the past 12 months, plus corporate standing, ESG, anti-bribery and modern slavery questions. CHAS routes the same standard through its Elite membership. If that is where you are headed, read the Common Assessment Standard question set before you buy, because that is the pack mutual recognition does not hand you.

Do I need all of this if I have fewer than five employees?

UK health and safety law sets the floor, and it is lower than most subcontractors assume. The Health and Safety Executive states that if you have five or more employees you must write your health and safety policy down, and that employers must have a written health and safety policy if they employ 5 or more people and record the significant findings of their risk assessments. With fewer than five employees you do not legally have to write it down — though the HSE says it is useful to do so.

Accreditation is a different matter from the legal minimum. The SSIP Core Criteria say organisations with fewer than five personnel are expected to provide proportional documented evidence, taking into account headcount and the risk profile of the work — proportionate, not exempt. In practice a two-man firm still produces a signed policy statement, sample risk assessments and training records; it is just shorter. Our health and safety policy guide for small contractors covers the three-part structure assessors look for.

How do you build the pack once and stop rebuilding it?

1. 1
   Put the twelve items in one folder. Not the laptop, the van and three email threads. One place, named consistently with your full registered company name — mismatched company names are a routine rejection.
2. 2
   Write the expiry date on each one. Insurance expiry, policy signature date, CSCS card dates, each training certificate. The CSCS card validity guide covers how long each card type runs.
3. 3
   Re-sign the policy statement annually, not on demand. Pick a fixed date — say the first week of January — so it is never more than 12 months old at any scheme's renewal.
4. 4
   Keep two live RAMS and two COSHH examples from a current job. Swap them when the job ends, not when a portal asks.
5. 5
   Diarise each scheme's renewal separately. CHAS in March and Gold in September are two deadlines, not one.

For the scheme-by-scheme detail, the CHAS documents checklist breaks down what goes in each CHAS module, and the documents hub collects the rest of the evidence guides.

Frequently Asked Questions

What documents do I need for SSIP accreditation?

SSIP assessments are evidence-based: expect to supply a signed health and safety policy, site-specific risk assessments and method statements, COSHH assessments, training records, employers' and public liability insurance certificates, details of your competent health and safety advice, accident and enforcement history, and evidence that you consult your workforce. The published SSIP Core Criteria set the standard every member scheme assesses against.

Does holding an SSIP certificate remove document questions on the Common Assessment Standard?

Partly. The Common Assessment Standard is designed to minimise duplication, so a valid SSIP certificate covers the health and safety questions you have already answered. It does not cover the financial, environmental, quality, EDI, anti-bribery or modern slavery modules — those are a separate pack you still have to produce.

How current does my health and safety policy have to be?

The SSIP Core Criteria require the statement of intent to be signed by the Managing Director or equivalent and dated within the previous 12 months. A policy signed two years ago will be rejected even if the content is perfect, which is why re-signing it on a fixed annual date is easier than reacting to each portal.

Can I use the same risk assessments for two different schemes?

Yes — the underlying evidence is the same, and schemes assessing against the SSIP core criteria are looking for the same thing. The catch is the date window: assessors typically want site or project specific examples from within the last 12 months, so the pair you used for a March submission may be out of date by the following year's renewal with a second scheme.

Do sole traders and very small firms need the full document pack?

The SSIP Core Criteria set out a proportionate approach for organisations with fewer than five personnel, who are expected to provide proportional documented evidence based on headcount and risk profile. You will still be asked to show how you identify hazards and control risks — the documents are shorter, not absent. Check the specific requirements with your chosen scheme, as each member holds its own criteria.

One pack, several expiry dates

The documents are not the hard part — you can write a policy and pull a RAMS off a live job. The hard part is that one evidence pack has to stay current against three separate clocks, and get re-uploaded to every scheme you hold, each with its own renewal date months apart. TradeComply tracks every accreditation's renewal date with reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days, keeps the evidence uploaded once and reused for each scheme, and tracks expiry on the documents themselves — the page has the detail. The checklist above works just as well in a folder on your laptop, as long as something reminds you to open it.

Last reviewed: 13/11/2026.