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In 2022, a tragic incident occurred in a logistics company that left an employee with life-changing injuries, and the company on whose premises this happened with a £1m fine. A subsequent investigation by the HSE put the blame partly on not having implemented its own PTW policies for work at height.

Even worse, in another shocking breach of UK health and safety laws, a worker lost their life when it was found that no permit was issued and approved for what proved to be extremely dangerous work in a chemical plant.

In the latter case, the HSE went so far as to note that, ‘Little proper thought had been given to the risks involved by those responsible for ensuring staff safety.’ I’m not raking up these shocking but thankfully rare incidents to embarrass the brands involved, but to echo a point well made by the regulator there: workplace safety professionals need to always be 100% on top of the Permit To Work issue (which, please note, is not the same as proof of right to work in the UK).

But if we have all these laws in place, why are we still reading such awful headlines?

Permit To Work in High Risk situations needs to be a central pillar of any serious compliance strategy

The context here is that the UK has some of the most rigorous health and safety regulations in the world—especially in high-risk industries like construction, oil & gas, manufacturing, and energy. We should all be grateful to HSE for the way it enforces strict compliance standards, particularly for tasks classified as high-risk, such as working at heights, confined spaces, or handling hazardous materials.

But alas, bad things do happen. People suffer, which is the worst consequence, but failures to comply with permit regulations can lead to steep fines, project shutdowns, and reputational damage. The reality is that effective Permit To Work processes are clearly emerging as a central pillar of any serious compliance strategy.

I am glad to say that my UK team and I are currently working with several UK companies on optimising their PTW processes (and I’m also pleased to note they are also looking at the allied issue of linking Permits in a way that only those approved for high-risk work can sign in and make it physically on site). But what’s emerging is that this is no trivial task, as there can be a lot of complexity here.

The reason: even within the same division of a big company, PTW processes can vary significantly from one site to another. Some processes are highly complex, necessitating multi-level approvals from senior staff members and supporting documentation; others, report practitioners, are straightforward, requiring only a General Permit to Work with a single approval from a line manager, yet all require weeks of setup, testing and refining.

Is there a better (PTW) way?

Emerging best practice to simplify all this is to include your PTW activity in ongoing digitisation. With other processes being digitised, PTW is in fact a natural bedfellow.

But it can still be challenging. From what I’ve seen these past few months, the primary obstacle to quick adoption of digital PTW is the intricate nature of the process and the need to coordinate all the stakeholders required to fully sign off on a permit.

Digital solutions absolutely simplify all this, but you do need to be able to embed the new approach in your workplace. I also see that some safety veterans need to take a bit of time to get used to letting go somewhat!

Why? Because they are so used to overseeing the PTW cycle from start to finish. Moving to PTW as part of an integrated cloud approach can mean users being asked to manage their respective aspects independently and often, of course, remotely.

Don’t be discouraged by complexity: PTW is a job worth doing, and well

Having discussed with safety managers who say, due to either inability to match the current manual process, lack of internal buy-in, or external pushback from contractors, have in the past quietly abandoned the PTW digitisation process after several attempts.

I’m not saying this to put you off, but merely to suggest that if you do put robust digital PTW as a core 2026 activity, working with an expert partner who’s done this many times before just might help. (Working with an expert partner who’s been around the block on this one a couple of times just might help, too.)

None of us want to ever read about these awful safety events, let alone have one of our team be involved in one. So, ensure every worker or visitor has the right documentation and training for whatever they might encounter inside your four walls via proven, complete Permit To Work audit trails and checks.

You know it makes sense, as they used to say.