Why bother with a hot work permit?

The permit is not about teaching experienced workers to weld safely — it is about making sure the environment is safe before they strike an arc. Typical fire scenarios include grinding sparks igniting insulation, welding spatter falling on oily rags, cutting on pipes with flammable residue, and fires starting after hot work finishes — which is why HSE's construction guidance asks for a fire watch of at least an hour afterwards and a further check two hours after. A hot work permit forces you to consider these scenarios before work starts.

Is a hot work permit required by law in the UK?

No UK statute requires a document called a hot work permit for all hot work. But HSE's construction fire guidance, HSG168 (third edition, 2022), says: "Where you cannot avoid hot works use formal systems of management, such as a permit-to-work (PTW) system." Where dangerous substances are present, the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 list "a system of permits to work" — issued before the work starts, where the work is carried out in hazardous places or involves hazardous activities — among the general safety measures to apply (those Regulations cover England, Wales and Scotland; in Northern Ireland, the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 use the same wording). HSE's HSG250 is the standard UK guidance on how permit systems should work.

Free Hot Work Permit Template (UK, HSE-Compliant)

Welding, cutting, grinding and torch-on roofing put heat and sparks next to things that burn, and a fire can start well after the work stops. HSE's construction fire guidance says that where you cannot avoid hot work you should control it with a permit-to-work system — and if you do not currently use one, this page gives you a printable template and explains each part of it.

Below is the template, followed by a walkthrough of what each section is for. PermitPad is building a digital hot work permit with guided checklists — join the waitlist to try it when it launches.

This guide covers UK requirements and references HSE guidance. Legislation and standards may differ in other jurisdictions.

What is a hot work permit?

A hot work permit is a formal written authorisation to carry out work that produces sparks, flames, or heat. It documents the hazards, the precautions taken, and the people involved. It is valid for a specific location and time period only.

HSE's HSG168, Fire safety in construction (third edition, 2022) defines hot work as "any process that generates flame, sparks or heat." In practice that covers:

Welding (MIG, TIG, MMA, oxy-acetylene)
Thermal cutting and gouging
Grinding and disc cutting (angle grinders, cut-off saws)
Brazing and soldering with a torch
Torch-applied roofing and bitumen heating
Any work with open flames or sparks near combustible materials
Heat guns and soldering irons — both are named in HSG168's list of common hot works

HSG168 also says a fully documented permit system "may not be needed where the risks arising from hot work are low (e.g. in a designed hot work area)." Everywhere else, assume it does.

Why bother with a permit?

You might think that an experienced welder does not need a piece of paper to tell them how to weld safely. And you would be right — the permit is not about teaching them to weld. It is about making sure the environment is safe before they strike an arc.

Consider the common fire scenarios:

Grinding sparks travel through a gap in a wall and ignite insulation behind the plasterboard.
Welding spatter falls through a floor grating and lands on oily rags two storeys below.
Hot cutting on a pipe that was not properly purged and still contains flammable residue.
A fire starts two hours after hot work has finished, because nobody checked for smouldering material.

A hot work permit forces you to think about these scenarios before work starts, not after a fire has started.

The thinking itself is a job of its own. Our hot work risk assessment guide walks through the five steps in order, and the hot work procedure guide covers the wider site process the permit sits inside. Where flammable substances or explosive atmospheres are in play, the DSEAR regulations guide sets out the extra duties that come with them.

Printable hot work permit template

Copy this into a Word or Google document, or print the page. It follows the contents HSG168 says a hot work permit system "should normally include" — the location and nature of the work, the time and duration, the limits of validity, precautions before, during and after, the alarm procedure, the person in direct control, and the person "authorising and closing the work" — laid out against the permit-form elements in HSE's permit guidance, HSG250.

HOT WORK PERMIT

Section	Fill in
Permit number · linked permits / isolation certificates	No. ______ · Linked: ______
Location (building, level, room, grid) and nature of the hot work (welding, cutting, grinding, torch-on, soldering)
Equipment to be used
Valid from / until (date and time) — one defined piece of work, one location	From: ______ Until: ______
Hazards — combustibles nearby, voids and breaches in walls / floors / ceilings, flammable atmospheres, people nearby
Precautions before work — loose combustibles removed (in and around the area, from breaches, from the area beneath, from the other side of walls); fixed combustibles and openings protected with non-combustible board; at least two suitable extinguishers in reach of the work and the fire watch position; fire detection isolation (if any) agreed and recorded	Checked by: ______
Fire watcher named	Name: ______
Alarm procedure — how to raise the alarm and call the fire service
Person in direct control of the work	Name: ______
Issue — area inspected, precautions in place	Issued by: ______ Date/time: ______
Acceptance — understood and briefed to all working under the permit	Accepted by: ______ Date/time: ______
Hot work stopped	Time: ______
Fire watch — continuous for at least one hour after hot work ends	Watch ended: ______ Signed: ______
Later check — at least one more check two hours after hot work ends	Time: ______ Signed: ______
Close-out — visual inspection of the area (attach any thermal images); fire detection reinstated	Closed by: ______ Date/time: ______

The fire watch rows use HSG168's construction timings. HSE's general guidance on welding sets a shorter baseline for other workplaces — see the fire watch section below.

What the template should include

In plain terms, a hot work permit breaks down into these sections:

Section 1: Permit details

Basic information that identifies the permit:

Permit number — sequential numbering helps with filing and audit
Date and time of issue
Valid from / valid until — HSG168 says a permit "should be issued for clearly defined pieces of work with a specified time period and should end once the activity at that location is complete and/or the time period has ended."
Site and location — be specific. "Main building" is not enough. "Ground floor plant room, east wall" is better.
Description of work — what is being done and with what equipment

Section 2: Hazard identification

This section references the risk assessment and identifies specific hazards at this location:

Combustible materials nearby (timber, insulation, packaging, chemicals)
Flammable atmospheres (solvent vapours, gas leaks, fuel stores)
Concealed spaces behind walls, above ceilings, or below floors where sparks could travel
Other workers in the area who could be affected
Fire detection systems that may need to be isolated (and re-activated after)

Section 3: Precautions checklist

This is the heart of the permit. A checklist of precautions that must be confirmed before work starts:

Loose combustible materials removed from in and around the work area, from any breaches in walls, floors and ceilings, from the area beneath, and from the other side of any wall or partition being worked on (HSG168's list)
Combustible material that cannot be removed, and any openings, protected with non-combustible board
Floor swept clean of dust, shavings, and debris
Gaps, cracks, and openings in walls and floors sealed or covered
At least two suitable fire extinguishers within reach of the hot work and of the fire watch position — HSG168's minimum
Fire watch person designated and briefed
Fire detection / sprinkler systems isolated in the immediate area (with notification to the fire alarm monitoring company)
Affected personnel notified
Screens or welding curtains in place to contain sparks and UV
Equipment inspected and in good condition (regulators, hoses, flashback arrestors)
Gas cylinders secured upright with caps in place when not in use
Adequate ventilation for fume extraction

Each item should be individually ticked and initialled. A permit where every box is ticked in a single pen stroke is a red flag — it suggests the checks were not actually done.

Section 4: Signatures — Issue

Two signatures are required:

Permit issuer — the person authorising the work. They confirm they have inspected the area and are satisfied that the precautions are in place.
Person accepting the permit — the person in charge of the hot work. They confirm they understand the hazards and precautions and have briefed the team.

These two signatures are the core control: they force a conversation and a physical inspection before any ignition source is introduced. HSG168 adds that "only people with clearly assigned authority should issue or close a PTW", and HSE's permit guidance, HSG250, says "a person should not issue a permit to themself."

Section 5: Fire watch

Hot work permits should require a fire watch during the work and for a period after it finishes. HSE gives two figures, depending on where you are working:

General workplaces. HSE's guidance on welding says the fire watch "should be maintained for at least 30 minutes after the completion of the hot work, but where an unintended ignition may be difficult to detect or slow to develop, this may need to be extended to 60 minutes."
Construction sites. HSG168 says "there should be a continuous fire watch of the hot work area for at least an hour after the end of hot work, followed by at least one more check two hours after the end of hot work", and that "all hot works should be completed two hours before the end of the working day to allow for the appropriate fire checks to be carried out."

Insurers and principal contractors may set longer periods in their own requirements; the permit should record whichever applies.

The fire watch section should record:

Name of the fire-watch person
Time hot work ceased
Time the continuous fire watch ended
Time of the later check, and who carried it out
Confirmation that the area was inspected and found safe

What the rules actually say about that period — and what an insurer expects to see recorded — is covered in our fire watch requirements guide. For the job itself, the free fire watch log generator produces a printable log sheet you can hand to the fire-watch person.

Section 6: Close-out

When the work is complete and the fire watch has finished, the permit must be formally closed:

Hot work completed
Fire watch completed for the required period, and the later check done
Area inspected — no signs of fire, smouldering, or heat damage. HSG168: "To close the permit undertake a visual inspection of the work area and include any images (e.g. thermal) from the hot watch period."
Fire detection systems re-activated — HSG168 asks for "robust procedures to ensure it is reactivated when work is completed or stops at the end of the day or for a break"
Equipment removed and area left clean

The close-out should be signed by someone with authority to close the permit — HSG168's list of what a permit system includes ends with the "person authorising and closing the work".

Common mistakes to avoid

These are common failings with paper hot work permits:

Open-ended or site-wide permits. A permit that says "valid until further notice" is not a permit — it is a blank cheque. HSG168: "PTW documents should not give blanket authorisations to carry out hot works anywhere on site at any time." If the work continues tomorrow, issue a new permit tomorrow.

Missing close-out. The permit is issued, the hot work happens, and nobody closes it — so there is no record that the fire watch or the later check happened.

Rubber stamping. The authoriser signs the permit without actually visiting the work area. If the authoriser has not physically seen the conditions, the permit is worthless.

Wrong or missing extinguishers. A water extinguisher next to an electrical panel, or a single extinguisher left at the far end of the floor. HSG168 asks for at least two suitable extinguishers within reach of the work and the fire watch position.

No notification. The fire alarm company is not told that detection has been isolated. Hours later, when nobody re-activates it, the entire building is unprotected overnight.

Paper vs digital

Paper hot work permit books are inexpensive and widely sold by safety suppliers. They work, but they have limitations we covered in our permit-to-work system guide. Our guide to digital permits explains how the digital workflow compares to paper in practice, and our paper vs digital comparison weighs up the trade-offs in detail. See also permit to work books vs a digital system. For tasks that do not involve flames, heat, or sparks, see our cold work permit template — the non-hot equivalent that controls mechanical and maintenance work with residual ignition risk.

PermitPad is building a digital hot work permit that guides you through each section with structured fields, enforces the checklist, captures digital signatures with timestamps, and stores everything in a searchable audit trail. Join the waitlist to be first in line when it launches.

Key references

HSG168: Fire safety in construction — HSE, third edition 2022. Paragraphs 118-132 cover hot works and permits to work
HSE guidance on welding — other welding risks — the general 30-minute fire watch baseline and when it extends to 60 minutes
HSG250: Guidance on permit-to-work systems — HSE, first edition 2005; written for the petroleum, chemical and allied industries, and guidance rather than law
The Joint Code of Practice on the Protection from Fire of Construction Sites and Buildings Undergoing Renovation — Fire Protection Association, tenth edition incorporating Amendments 1 and 2 (free download). HSG168 references the earlier ninth edition, Fire prevention on construction sites
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — fire safety duties for the responsible person in England and Wales

Summary

A hot work permit is a safety-critical control, not paperwork for its own sake. The template should cover permit details, hazard identification, a precautions checklist, issue and acceptance signatures, fire-watch records with times, and a formal close-out. Whether you use paper or digital, the important thing is that the permit is completed properly, every time, before any hot work begins.

Need a quick pre-start checklist for today's job? Our free safety checklist generator builds one based on your selected work types.