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Permit to work generator
Generate a permit for confined space entry, hot work, working at heights, electrical isolation, excavation or work near live services, with a pre-start checklist that gates issue and a cancellation block that closes it out.
- The task genuinely cannot be done from outside the space
- Space isolated: all inlets, agitators and energy sources locked and tagged
- Atmosphere tested immediately before entry and results within acceptable range
- Continuous mechanical ventilation established and running
- Standby person at the entry with no other duties
What a permit to work is, and what it is not
A permit to work is a written authorisation for a specific task, in a specific place, for a specific period, issued by a competent person after they have satisfied themselves that the conditions are safe. It is a control in its own right, not a record that a control happened.
It is not a substitute for a risk assessment, and it is not a SWMS. The SWMS says how the work will be done safely in general. The permit says that on this day, in this location, the conditions that make it safe have been verified and the work may start.
It is also not a piece of paper that makes someone permitted. Generating a permit does not make anyone an issuing authority. That authority comes from your safety management system, and the tool says so on every export.
Why the checklist gates the permit
Most permit templates give you a list of boxes and an issue block, and it is entirely possible to sign the issue block with half the boxes unticked. That is how permits become paperwork.
This tool marks certain items as gating and will not produce the permit until they are satisfied. For confined space, that includes the space being isolated, the atmosphere tested immediately before entry, mechanical ventilation running, and a standby person at the entry with no other duties. For hot work, it includes combustibles cleared, an extinguisher at the workface, and a nominated fire watch.
A partly completed permit is not a permit. Blocking on that is the point, and it is deliberate friction rather than an oversight.
Confined space: why deaths come in pairs
The recurring pattern in confined space fatalities is that the second person died going in to help the first. The atmosphere that caused the initial collapse is still there, the rescuer enters without equipment because there is no time, and the incident doubles.
This is why the standby person has no other duties, why the rescue plan has to exist and be resourced before entry rather than improvised after, and why atmospheric testing happens immediately before entry rather than earlier that morning. Conditions inside a confined space change: a purge stops, a valve leaks, a coating off-gasses.
It is also why the entry and exit log matters more than it looks. At the end of the job, someone has to be able to say with certainty that everyone who went in has come out, and memory is not a control.
Hot work: the fire starts after everyone leaves
Most hot work fires are not discovered while the work is happening. Sparks travel further than people expect, fall through penetrations to the level below, and smoulder in dust, insulation or timber framing for an hour or more before there is anything visible.
That is why the fire watch continues after the work stops and the area is re-inspected before the permit is cancelled, and why the checklist asks about the level below and behind, not just the immediate workface.
It is also why isolating fire detection has to be recorded rather than just done. A detection system left isolated overnight because nobody wrote down that it was isolated is a worse outcome than the fire risk the isolation was managing.
Cancel the permit, do not let it expire
The part almost every free template omits is the cancellation. A permit that simply runs out of time leaves nobody accountable for whether the area was actually made safe, whether isolations were restored, whether locks were removed by their owners, and whether everyone got out.
Cancellation is where the loop closes. It is a positive act by a named person confirming that the specific conditions of that permit have been discharged: the space vacated and the log reconciled, the post-work fire watch elapsed, the excavation backfilled or plated, the system restored or safely left isolated.
Every permit this tool produces carries issue, acceptance, suspension and cancellation blocks. The suspension block is there because work stops for reasons nobody plans for, and resuming under a permit whose conditions have changed is how the original assessment quietly stops applying.
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