Working with other businesses is a natural part of residential construction. It’s important that you provide the main contractor with evidence that will help demonstrate your health and safety focus and procedures. Each business must do what they can, within reason, to keep everyone safe. This relates to their own team, other workers or anyone that steps on-site. If engaging subcontractors of your own, make sure you prequalify their procedures to ensure that you are happy with how safely they will work too.

What you need to get started:

Question 1 - Your NZBN

You will need to enter a valid NZBN number, if you don’t have one then you are able to register for an NZBN number prior to completing the prequalification by following the link shown on screen - https://www.nzbn.govt.nz/. Note: you have a NZBN set as private, it won't be recognised in the system.

Questions 2-7 - Company Details

This is your trading name, contact details and the company trade.

Question 8 - Public liability insurance

Add your current public liability insurance document is in date and that the value of the policy is acceptable for the works to be undertaken.

Question 9 - Health and safety policy

By have a up-to-date health and safety policy it should that your business takes a positive approach and sets out how you will manage health and safety. If you don't have a policy give the team at HazardCo a call.

Question 10 - Health and safety policy evidence

Uploads copies of your health and safety policy, and any other policies that you have relating to health and safety. These documents should be signed by the Director or Manager of the business and dated in the past 2 years.

Question 11 - Incident and emergency management

This is where you will detail what your incident/near-miss procedures are. It should include things like:

Question 12 - Convictions and investigations

Have you been convicted of, or investigated for, a health and safety related offence within the past 5 years? This is where you will be required to provide details of the offence and any enforcement action that may have been taken.

Question 13 - Emergency procedures

This is where you detail your emergency processes for first aid, fire, chemical spills and natural disasters when working on your main contractors site. You should have at least one first aider available at all times and identify how you would find the procedures on-site.

Question 14 - Worker engagement and participation

Detail your process for including other workers (and contractors) in your health and safety processes, such as how your workers contribute to health and safety discussions and decisions e.g how the site hazards and controls are communicated (such as via toolbox talks), these discussions should take place prior to work commencing.

Question 15 - Hazard identification and risk management

Detail how you will identify and assesses hazards and risks on-site. It should include things like:

Control hierarchy:

Question 16 - Hazard/Risk register

Upload a copy of your hazard/risk register here. A good example of a hazard/risk register includes:

Hazard/risk registers do not need to document hazards that have been eliminated, only those where a possibility of harm still remains after all controls have been applied.

Question 17 - High risk work

If you are carrying out high risk work for your contractor then detail it here and how you will manage it. Will you be using risk assessments?. This could be things like working at heights, concrete pumping, electrical work, asbestos removal, demolition etc.

Question 18 - Response plan

If you are doing high risk work then provide details of your response plan should there be an emergency response required due to high risk work. The plan should include:

Question 19 - Hazardous chemicals

If you will be using hazardous substances on-site, provide a copy of your hazardous substance inventory to show that you are currently managing hazardous substances. A hazardous substance inventory should include the following information for each individual site:

Question 20 - Health monitoring

Detail here what their health monitoring methods are used for workers exposed to risks such as airborne contaminants, hazardous substances or excessive noise. This could be things such as:

Question 21 - Machinery and equipment

Procedures should be in place to ensure that your machinery and equipment (including electrical equipment) is maintained and fit for purpose. All machinery and equipment should be subject to:

All machinery and equipment should be recorded on a register and maintenance records should be kept.

All electrical equipment should be tested and tagged, by a suitably qualified person, every 3 months, checked prior to use for damage/wear and tear, and removed from use (LOTO) if defects are detected.

Question 22 - Employee H&S competencies/training

Detail how you will ensure that your workers keep up to date with their training requirements. The simplest answer is a training register which should detail the following:

Detail how you will ensure that these do not lapse (calendar reminders to rebook for example).

Question 23 - Monitor and review

Detail how you monitor and review work being carried out on-site. This could be via site reviews. Detail how concerns are raised by workers and how they are actioned.

Question 24 - Contractor health and safety

If you appoint subcontractors, this is where you will detail the processes in place to ensure that they also have robust health and safety procedures. This should include asking for information such as:

Next steps

Once you have completed your prequalification it will be sent off to your main contractor to be reviewed. If they need any additional information then you will receive a rejection email that outlines the reasons for rejection. In the body it will advise what extra information you need to provide to complete the prequalification, just follow the steps and re-submit.

Remember that each question requires an answer and it should not be ‘refer to our health and safety procedures’. The answers should be like a story of what you will do on-site for your main contractor to manage risks, as this is the best way to demonstrate how you will work safely.