Emergency muster and roll call on construction sites

What does the law require?

Emergency duties on construction sites come mainly from three regulations in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015:

• Regulation 30, emergency procedures. Where necessary for health or safety, "suitable and sufficient arrangements for dealing with any foreseeable emergency must be made and, where necessary, implemented". They must include procedures for any necessary evacuation of the site or part of it. They must take account of the type of work, the site's size and layout, the equipment used, the number of people likely to be present, and the substances on site. Everyone covered must be familiar with the arrangements, which must be "tested by being put into effect at suitable intervals".
• Regulation 31, emergency routes and exits. Provide enough suitable routes and exits for people to reach a place of safety quickly. They must lead as directly as possible to an identified safe area, be kept clear, have emergency lighting where needed, and be signed.
• Regulation 32, fire detection and fire-fighting. Provide suitable fire-fighting equipment and fire detection and alarm systems, examine and test them at suitable intervals, and instruct people in using the equipment they may need.

Two other duties support the roll call. Under regulation 13(4), the principal contractor must ensure a suitable site induction is provided and take the necessary steps to prevent unauthorised access to the site. Both depend on knowing who is there.

Schedule 2 of CDM 2015 covers minimum welfare facilities, not emergency procedures. If a document cites "Schedule 2" for evacuation, it means regulations 30 to 32.

General fire safety law also applies: the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales, and the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 in Scotland. Article 15 of the Order requires the responsible person to set up procedures for serious and imminent danger, "including safety drills". According to HSE's guide HSG168 Fire safety in construction, HSE is the enforcing authority for fire precautions on construction sites where the only people present are doing or supporting the construction work.

What should the site emergency plan answer?

HSG168 (third edition, 2022) sets out the questions an emergency plan should answer. In summary:

• Where will people gather after evacuating? On a small site the pavement may be enough, as long as it doesn't block the fire service. Larger sites may need somewhere like a car park.
• Who is in charge, who assists them, and what training do they need? Name deputies to cover absence.
• How will the people in charge communicate with each other?
• How will you confirm everyone has reached the assembly point? HSG168 gives head counts, checking off against site security logs brought to the assembly point, and wardens sweeping their areas as examples.
• Will neighbouring premises need to be evacuated, and how will you tell them?
• Who calls the emergency services, and how? The plan should not leave people assuming that someone else has called.
• Who meets the fire service, and what will they need to know? This includes the likely whereabouts of anyone unaccounted for, gas cylinders, asbestos, unstable structures, and electric or hydrogen-fuelled plant.

HSE's general fire safety guidance adds that the warning, whether a mains alarm, a klaxon, an air horn or a whistle, must be "distinctive, audible above other noise and recognisable by everyone".

Where a hoarding surrounds the site and the assembly point is outside it, HSG168 says you need enough gates, with clear access, unlocked whenever people are working.

How do you run a roll call?

A roll call turns "we think everyone's out" into a named list of who is safe and who is missing. A typical sequence:

1. Raise the alarm. Use the site's recognised signal and call the emergency services if the plan says to. Never assume someone else has.
2. Evacuate by the signed routes. Operatives make their equipment safe if the method allows it without risk to themselves. HSG168 notes that oxy-fuel equipment and bitumen boilers can turn a small fire into a big one if they are left on.
3. Gather at the assembly point. Marshals or wardens sweep their areas on the way out, if it is safe to do so.
4. Take the list. The person running the muster works from the record of who is on site now: workers, subcontractors, visitors and delivery drivers. A list of who is booked to be there is not enough.
5. Mark people safe. Tick off each person seen at the assembly point. Ask supervisors about their gangs, and hosts about their visitors.
6. Report anyone missing. Give the names and last known locations to the incident controller and the fire and rescue service. Nobody goes back in to search.
7. All clear. Only the person in charge, or the fire service, stands people down. Record the roll call result and the time it took.

The plan should name a second person who can run the muster, and should say where the list comes from if the usual person or device is not available.

Who gets missed in a muster?

Roll calls rarely fail on the regular workforce. They fail on people at the edges of the sign-in process:

• Visitors who signed a book at reception but were never added to the muster list, or who left without signing out and are then reported missing.
• Delivery drivers who waited in a cab in the laydown area, unaware of the alarm.
• Subcontractor gangs who arrived early or came in through a side gate and never signed in.
• Lone workers in plant rooms, risers, roof areas or confined spaces, where the alarm may not be heard.
• People who left early but are still marked as on site, which sends search effort to the wrong place.

HSG168 says that everyone on site, even for a few hours, must get enough information to know what to do in a fire. On their first day that means at least: escape routes from their work area and the assembly point, where the nearest fire alarm call point is and how it works, and any significant fire hazard in their area. It adds that site visitors "need to be made aware of what to do if there is a fire". This can go on site passes or into the site rules visitors accept when they sign in.

How often should you run drills?

Regulation 30 says "at suitable intervals" and does not set a fixed frequency. HSG168 links the need for drills to risk: as fire risk and headcount rise, often once the main structure is complete, so does the need for a full drill to check the training and understanding of workers and visitors and to find problems such as bottlenecks.

HSG168 recommends a weekly fire alarm test, at the same time each week, with people told it is a test. It also suggests checking understanding by asking individual workers "What is the fire alarm?" and "What would you do?"

After each drill, record:

• the date, time and scenario, including any blocked route you simulated;
• how long the evacuation took, and how long until everyone was accounted for;
• who was on the list but not at the assembly point, and why (left early, didn't hear, wrong assembly point);
• who was at the assembly point but not on the list, which shows gaps in signing in;
• the actions agreed and who owns them.

The last two items are where a drill pays for itself. Each mismatch shows a hole in how people get on and off the record.

Paper list or live sign-in record?

Any list works only if it matches who is actually on site. A paper book at the gate is easy to start, but it relies on people signing out, on someone grabbing it when the alarm goes, and on a marshal reading handwriting in the rain. It also can't tell you which visitors have already left by another gate.

A live record keeps the muster list current as people check in and out at the gate or kiosk. The marshal can then mark people safe from a phone or tablet at the assembly point, and the remaining names become the missing-persons list. Whichever method you use, plan for failure: decide who holds a backup copy, how it is kept current, and test it in a drill.

Sources

Checked 11 November 2026. Legislation links go to legislation.gov.uk; guidance links to the publisher's own pages.

1. CDM 2015 regulation 30: Emergency procedures (legislation.gov.uk)
2. CDM 2015 regulation 31: Emergency routes and exits (legislation.gov.uk)
3. CDM 2015 regulation 32: Fire detection and fire-fighting (legislation.gov.uk)
4. CDM 2015 regulation 13: Principal contractor duties (legislation.gov.uk)
5. HSE, HSG168 Fire safety in construction (third edition, 2022)
6. HSE, General fire safety on construction sites
7. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 article 15 (legislation.gov.uk)

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the current legislation and guidance for your own site and work.