Work environment plan – a key tool for ensuring health and safety

In many construction projects, a work environment plan is a mandatory requirement. The purpose of the plan is to outline how health and safety will be managed throughout the project. Its primary aim is to prevent occupational risks during the construction phase.

What is a work environment plan?

The work environment plan is a plan for health and safety in a construction project. The document is intended to serve as a practical tool and management system for overseeing occupational health and safety within a construction project. It also sets out how all parties involved must be coordinated to ensure that health and safety risks during the construction phase are effectively prevented.

The plan provides essential support to the client, as well as to the appointed building work environment coordinator for the planning and design phase (Bas-P) and for the construction phase (Bas-U), helping to ensure that no occupational risks, necessary safety measures or site rules regarding order and discipline are overlooked.

Start developing the work environment plan at an early stage, so that it can serve as a guiding and governing document for managing health and safety throughout the construction project.

The Swedish Work Environment Authority’s provisions on design and building work environment coordination – basic obligations (AFS 2023:3) contain a dedicated chapter outlining the requirements for the work environment plan. This includes when it must be in place, its intended purpose, and the specific elements it must contain.

When is a work environment plan required?

A work environment plan must be established if

  • contractors are to carry out any of the 13 types of high-risk work specified in chapter 11 section 12 of the provisions on design and building work environment coordination, or
  • the building or civil engineering work is of such a scale that the client must provide prior notification, i.e.
    • the construction work is expected to last longer than 30 working days on the construction site and more than 20 people will be working simultaneously there at any one time, or
    • the total estimated workload on the construction site exceeds 500 person-days.

A work environment plan is almost always necessary, even for smaller construction projects involving only self-employed individuals, if any of the 13 high-risk activities are present.

Examples of work that requires a work environment plan:

For instance, even in a small construction project, there is often a risk of falling from a height exceeding two metres. Another type of work that necessitates a work environment plan is excavation, where there is a danger of being buried under soil or of becoming trapped in unstable ground conditions. In both cases, a work environment plan is required to identify, as early as possible, the proposed solutions and preventive measures to manage the risks of falls and excavation collapse.

The plan should clearly outline how this work will be carried out safely within the context of the specific construction project. It does not need to be exhaustive, but it must be sufficiently detailed to ensure the work can be performed without endangering health and safety.

  • These are the certain types of work with high risks for health and safety that require a work environment plan for the construction project to be drawn up:

    1. Work with risk of falling to a lower level, if the drop height is two metres or more.
    2. Work with risk of being buried under soil or becoming trapped in unstable ground conditions.
    3. Work on launching, assembling or disassembling of heavy construction elements or heavy formwork elements.
    4. Work exposing someone to chemical or biological substances that pose a particular risk to health and safety, or that are subject to requirements for medical checks.
    5. Demolition of load-bearing structures, or health-endangering materials or substances.
    6. Work near high voltage power lines.
    7. Work in a place or area where vehicular traffic passes.
    8. Work where explosives are used.
    9. Work in wells and tunnels and construction work underground.
    10. Work where there is a risk of drowning.
    11. Work performed underwater with diving equipment.
    12. Work performed in a caisson with raised air pressure.
    13. Work which exposes workers of ionising radiation and for which a controlled area or a protected area must be established, according to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority's provisions.

  • You can find out more about prior notification here:

    Prior notification

Who is responsible for the work environment plan?

If you have any of these roles, you are counted as a party in the construction project who has responsibility for the work environment plan:

  • Client (e.g. property owner)
  • Bas-P
  • Bas-U.

The different parties have different tasks in developing the work environment plan, depending on the stage the of the construction project.

What are the responsibilities of the different roles?

  • If you have the role of the client, you have a responsibility to ensure that a work environment plan is drawn up and that it is accessible at the construction site and updated when changes occur.

  • Bas-P is responsible for drawing up the work environment plan and must start working with it during the planning and design phase. If you have the role of Bas-P, you must be able to present the commenced work environment plan at any time during the stage when you are responsible for it.

    Before the first building or civil engineering work starts, Bas-P must have incorporated everything that is known and of interest for health and safety at that time and hand over the work environment plan to Bas-U.

  • Bas-U must update the work environment plan if there are changes, so that it corresponds to current conditions and the methods used. If you have the role of Bas-U, you must ensure that the work environment plan is accessible at the construction site. Everyone who works there must be able to access and take part of it.

The various parties' respective chapters in the provisions on design and building work environment coordination state who must do what on the work environment plan.

What content is required in the work environment plan?

  • How the work environment management in the construction project has been organised and is conducted must be included in the work environment plan. It must be made clear

    • which persons have different work environment tasks
    • what the routines for coordination and work environment management are.

    The plan should also inform about

    • which work environment tasks the various responsible persons have
    • what these tasks include
    • when and how often the tasks must be performed.

    It is also appropriate that the plan inform about safety representatives and people who have training in first aid.

    The description of the work environment management must be relevant to the stage the construction project is in. Thus, the work environment plan does not also need to address the construction phase's routines for coordination during the planning and design phase. But if the planning and design proceeds after the construction work has started, then both the routines for coordination of the designers and the rotuines for coordination of the contractors must be included in the work environment plan during the construction phase.

  • Express the common order and safety rules that will apply on the construction site in a clear and simple language so that they are easy to understand. They should not be greater in number or more extensive than is necessary to achieve the intended objectives.

    Although general rules are often sufficient, a particular project may require special rules due to the hazards and risks involved.

  • If the work is to be carried out in a place where other activities will take place at the same time, the work environment plan must describe how the coordination with the other activities is supposed to take place so that health and safetyrisks are prevented and remedied. This may be a permanent place of business where the ordinary operations must proceed without too much disruption during the construction project. This could, for example, be when building and civil engineering work is carried out at a school, hospital, shopping centre or a road or track area.

    Much can be gained if the client, the coordinator at the permanent place of business, Bas-P, the designers, the contractors and Bas-U agree at an early stage of the construction project how the activities are to be coordinated.

    Sometimes there may be one or more other construction projects that you need to coordinate the construction work with. If there are different clients in the different construction projects, they all need to take responsibility for clarifying demarcations in the work environment management between the different projects.

  • There must be a description of the measures to prevent ill health and accidents that must be taken during work with high risks that occurs in the construction project. So it is not only the risks themselves that must be listed. Most importantly is to decide and describe in the work environment plan how the risks are to be prevented.

    The description must include the measures that have actually been planned for in the current case, there should be no general, preselected measures. If there are different planned ways to prevent a risk during different stages of the construction project or in different operations, this must be stated in the work environment plan. It must be possible to understand which measure should be used in which situation, for example during different jobs that involve risks of falling to a lower level.

More support on the work environment plan and its handover

You can find more support on how you can work with the work environment plan and use it as a tool to create a safe work environment in the provisions on design and building work environment coordination.

The work environment plan can be used already during procurement. In this way, you can clarify how you want work environment management to function in the construction project and control the work environment management at an early stage. Find out more about

  • general work environment plan – when you can use it
  • how you can perform the handover of the work environment plan in a structured way.

  • In some cases, a general work environment plan can be used instead of a project specific plan. You can read about when this is possible in chapter 11 in the provisions on design and building work environment coordination (AFS 2023:3).

  • The work environment plan must be handed over in a structured way between the building work environment coordinators. The information about the other work environment management that has been carried out also needs to be passed on. You can read about what applies when you are to hand over the work environment plan in chapter 11 in the provisions on design and building work environment coordination (AFS 2023:3).

Last updated 2025-09-05