What is an SSSP?
An SSSP (Site-Specific Safety Plan) is the health and safety document a contractor prepares for one specific site. It records the site details, the hazards of the work, the controls in place, the emergency plan and how the contractor works in with the main contractor. Main contractors in New Zealand ask for it before a subcontractor starts.
What an SSSP covers
An SSSP is written for one job on one site. It is not a generic policy: it names the actual company, the site address, the main contractor, the crew and the specific hazards of the work being done.
- •Project and site details, and the PCBU and contact structure
- •A hazard and risk register for the work, with controls in the order required by reg 6 of the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016
- •Task analyses for the common tasks on site
- •An emergency plan, site induction record and first aid arrangements
- •How the contractor meets its overlapping duties with the main contractor under section 34 of HSWA
- •Incident and notifiable-event reporting, worker engagement, and a review schedule
Why the main contractor asks for it
Under section 34 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, every PCBU that shares a workplace must consult, co-operate and co-ordinate with the others (the 3Cs). The main contractor uses your SSSP to see that you have identified the hazards of your work and put controls in place, so the whole site is managed. Without it, they cannot show they have met their own duty, so they will not let you start.
SSSP or task analysis?
The SSSP is the whole-of-site document. A task analysis (sometimes called a JSA) breaks a single task into steps with the hazards and controls for that task. An SSSP references the task analyses for the higher-risk work. You usually need both, and they are provided together.
Common questions
Is an SSSP a legal requirement in New Zealand?
There is no single regulation that says "you must have an SSSP". It is how a PCBU demonstrates it has met its duties under HSWA 2015 and the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016, and how a main contractor meets its section 34 duty to co-ordinate the PCBUs on site. In practice, main contractors require one before you start.
Who writes the SSSP?
The PCBU doing the work is responsible for its own SSSP. You can write it yourself, use a template, or generate a site-specific one. The main contractor reviews it, but the duty to identify and control your hazards sits with you.
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