A permit to load is the formal authorisation that a temporary works item may be brought into use. It is the point at which someone competent confirms, in writing, that the thing that has been built matches the thing that was designed and checked, that it has been inspected, and that it is safe to apply load to it.
It is a small document that carries a great deal of weight. When temporary works fail, the investigation almost always reaches the permit: either it was never issued, or it was issued before the conditions attached to it had actually been met.
Where the permit sits in the sequence
The permit is not a standalone piece of paperwork. It is the gate at one specific point in a chain, and it only means anything if every preceding step has actually happened.
A typical temporary works item moves through the sequence below. The permit to load sits between installation and use, which is precisely why it is the natural control point — it is the last moment before the consequences of an error become physical.
The temporary works lifecycle
- Item identified and entered on the temporary works register
- Design brief prepared and issued to the designer
- Design produced, with residual risks identified
- Independent design check carried out at the level set by the design category
- Design issued for construction
- Item installed in accordance with the issued design
- Installation inspected and any defects corrected
- Permit to load issued — the item may now be used
- Item used, maintained and re-inspected as required
- Permit to unload or strike issued when the permanent works can take over
- Item dismantled, removed and closed out on the register
Who issues and signs it
In most organisations the permit is issued by the Temporary Works Co-ordinator, or by whoever the project temporary works procedure nominates for that item. This is a decision your own procedure makes — there is no universal rule, and an auditor will assess you against your procedure rather than against general practice.
What matters more than the job title is that the person signing is competent to make the judgement, is independent enough to refuse, and has actually seen the evidence. A permit signed by someone who has not read the inspection record is not a control; it is a signature.
The Temporary Works Supervisor commonly carries out or supports the inspection that the permit relies on. The Designated Individual sets the arrangements under which all of this happens, but does not usually sign individual permits.
A permit is an authorisation, not a transfer of responsibility. Signing it does not move the designer’s duties, the checker’s duties, or the contractor’s duties anywhere else.
What a permit to load must contain
Formats vary between organisations, and a good permit is short. But a permit that cannot be traced back to a specific design revision and a specific inspection is not doing its job. At minimum it should carry the following.
Minimum content
- Project name, location and permit reference number
- Temporary works register reference for the item
- Clear description and precise location of the item — enough that nobody could confuse it with a similar item elsewhere on site
- Design reference and, critically, the design revision number
- Design check reference, the design category and confirmation the check is complete
- Reference to the installation inspection record and its date
- Any conditions or limitations on use — maximum loads, permitted plant, loading sequence, weather restrictions, exclusion zones, monitoring requirements
- Duration or the circumstances that invalidate the permit
- Name, role, signature and date of the person issuing it
- Who the permit has been communicated to on site
The conditions are the important part
Most permits are issued with conditions attached, and this is where control is most often lost. A permit that says "maximum imposed load 5 kN/m², no plant above 3 tonnes, do not load bay 4 until the slab above reaches 20 N/mm²" only works if the people actually placing the load know that.
A condition recorded on a form in the site office and never communicated to the gang doing the work has controlled nothing. Whatever your procedure says about distribution, the practical test is whether the supervisor on that pour could tell you the limits without looking them up.
Permit to unload and permit to strike
The permit to load gets the attention, but the removal end of the sequence is frequently the more hazardous one. A permit to unload, or permit to strike, authorises the removal of load from a temporary works item, or its dismantling.
The question it answers is different: not "is the temporary works ready to take load" but "can the permanent works now stand without it". That usually depends on concrete strength results, on the completion of connections elsewhere, or on a sequence being followed in a particular order.
Striking early, or striking out of sequence, has caused a significant proportion of the serious temporary works failures in UK construction. The permit is the control that stops it, which is why the strike permit deserves at least as much rigour as the load permit — and why it should never be a tick box handed to whoever is available on the day.
What audits find, repeatedly
The same handful of findings appear on project after project. None of them are exotic; all of them are avoidable.
Common permit findings
- Permit issued before the independent design check was complete
- Permit referencing a design without a revision number, so nobody can prove which version was built
- Permit issued with no corresponding inspection record on file
- Conditions and load limits recorded on the permit but never communicated to the operatives applying the load
- Modifications made to the item after the permit was issued, with no re-inspection and no new permit
- Permits signed retrospectively to close out an audit action — usually obvious, and far more damaging than the original gap
- No permit to strike, or strike authorised verbally on the basis of "the concrete looked fine"
- Two similar items on site, one permit, and no way to tell which item it covers
Paper, spreadsheet or system
The permit itself does not care what it is written on. What matters is whether, eighteen months later, you can produce the permit, the design revision it refers to, the check certificate and the inspection record — and show they are consistent with each other.
That is straightforward on a small project with an organised site team. It becomes difficult across multiple projects, multiple subcontractors and staff turnover, which is where a controlled digital workflow starts to earn its place: the permit cannot be issued unless the check and the inspection it depends on already exist in the system.