Site Welfare Facilities — What You Must Provide on a Construction Site (2026)

The Legal Duty to Provide Welfare

On construction sites in England, Scotland and Wales, welfare is governed by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 — CDM 2015. The specific requirements are set out in Schedule 2, which lists the minimum facilities for toilets, washing, drinking water, changing and rest. These are legal duties, not best-practice suggestions.

For workplaces that are not construction sites — a workshop, yard, office or established premises — the equivalent rules sit in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. The two regimes overlap in substance, but if you are building, renovating, demolishing or doing similar construction work, CDM 2015 is the one that applies to the site.

The single most important point: welfare must be available from the very start of the job. You cannot run the first week without a toilet and add one later once the site is set up. Schedule 2 requires "so far as is reasonably practicable" that facilities are provided from the outset and maintained throughout. Plan welfare into your programme and your costings before you mobilise, not after.

The Minimum Facilities You Must Provide

CDM 2015 Schedule 2 sets out five areas of welfare provision. Here is what each one means in practice on a working site.

Toilets (Sanitary Conveniences)

You must provide a sufficient number of toilets, kept clean and ready for use. Where it is reasonably practicable, they must be flushing toilets connected to mains water and drainage; where that is not practicable — a remote site with no connections — you can use suitable alternatives such as portable chemical or recirculating units, provided they are emptied and serviced regularly.

Toilets must be adequately lit and ventilated, and they must be separable or lockable so a person can use them in privacy. Where men and women cannot use the same facility at the same time, the toilet must be lockable from the inside. Provide separate facilities for men and women unless each unit is in a fully separate room with a door that locks.

Washing Facilities

Washing facilities must be provided at toilets and at changing areas. As a minimum that means basins large enough to wash the hands, face and forearms, with a supply of clean hot and cold — or warm — running water, soap, and a means of drying such as towels or a hand dryer.

Where the work is particularly dirty or involves contamination — for example demolition, drainage work, exposure to lead, asbestos work under separate controls, or other hazardous substances — you must provide showers as well. Showers are not optional extras on those jobs; they are part of preventing workers carrying contamination home to their families.

Drinking Water

An adequate supply of wholesome drinking water must be readily accessible on site and clearly marked so it is not confused with non-potable supplies. Unless the water comes from a drinking fountain or jet that workers drink directly from, you must also provide cups or other drinking vessels. On hot days and during physically demanding work, easy access to drinking water matters for both health and productivity.

Changing Rooms and Storage for Clothing

Where workers wear special clothing or PPE and cannot reasonably be expected to change elsewhere, you must provide changing facilities with seating. There must also be somewhere to store clothing — both the worker's own clothes not worn during work, and protective clothing not worn off site. Where necessary, provide separate changing for men and women, and a means of drying wet clothing. Lockers or secure storage protect personal items and keep contaminated work clothing away from clean clothes.

Rest Facilities

You must provide a rest area or rest room where workers can take breaks and eat. It must include tables and enough seating with backs for the number of workers likely to use it at once, be heated to a comfortable temperature, and have a means of preparing or heating food and boiling water — a kettle and a microwave are the usual minimum on a small site.

Rest facilities must include arrangements to protect non-smokers from discomfort caused by tobacco smoke, and suitable provision for any worker who is pregnant or a nursing mother to rest. Eating arrangements must allow food to be eaten without it becoming contaminated by site dust or substances — workers should not be eating their lunch sitting on a pile of rubble.

Quick Reference: Minimum Welfare Facilities (CDM 2015)

Who Is Responsible for Welfare?

Responsibility follows control of the site. The contractor in control of the work — the person who actually manages the site and the people on it — must ensure suitable welfare facilities are provided, so far as is reasonably practicable, for anyone working on the project.

On notifiable projects — broadly, work lasting longer than 30 working days with more than 20 workers at any one time, or exceeding 500 person-days — there must be a principal contractor, and the principal contractor carries the duty to ensure welfare is provided for the whole site and all who work on it. Where several trades share a site, this avoids each subcontractor assuming someone else has sorted the toilet.

The self-employed are not exempt. If you are a sole trader working on your own job — a one-person extension, a small roofing contract — you must still provide suitable welfare for yourself. CDM 2015 applies to the self-employed in the same way it applies to any other worker; you cannot opt out of having a toilet and somewhere to wash because you are working alone.

Short, Mobile and Transient Work

Small firms often work short jobs or move location daily — fencing, groundworks, repairs across several addresses. The duty does not disappear because the job is brief or mobile.

For short-duration or transient work you have a few practical routes. A towable welfare unit — a self-contained trailer with a toilet, wash basin, hot water and a heated rest area — is the standard solution for sites with no facilities, and units can be hired by the week. Alternatively, you can arrange in advance to use suitable facilities at nearby premises, but this must be a genuine, agreed arrangement that workers can actually access throughout the working day, with the agreement documented.

What is not acceptable as your sole provision is sending workers off to find a public toilet, a café, or the nearest supermarket. Public facilities are not generally acceptable on their own — they may be closed, too far away, or simply unsuitable, and relying on them is one of the things HSE inspectors specifically look out for. If you genuinely cannot install fixed welfare for a very short job, hire a mobile welfare unit; the day rate is small against the cost of an enforcement notice.

Keeping Facilities Clean and Stocked

Providing welfare is only half the duty — keeping it usable is the other half. Toilets must be cleaned and serviced regularly; chemical units need scheduled empties so they do not become unusable mid-week. Washing facilities must have soap and a drying means topped up. Drinking water and cups need restocking. Rest areas must be kept clean enough to eat in.

Assign someone responsibility for daily welfare checks and build servicing into your hire arrangements from the start. A toilet provided on day one but never emptied is not compliance — and it is exactly the kind of thing that turns a routine site visit into a problem.

Rough Numbers: Toilet and Washbasin Ratios

Schedule 2 requires a "sufficient" number rather than fixing exact figures, but HSE and industry guidance give working ratios you can plan against. As a rough guide, mixed-use or single-sex provision is often planned along these lines:

• 1 to 5 workers: 1 toilet and 1 washbasin
• 6 to 25 workers: 2 toilets and 2 washbasins
• 26 to 50 workers: 3 toilets and 3 washbasins
• 51 to 75 workers: 4 toilets and 4 washbasins
• 76 to 100 workers: 5 toilets and 5 washbasins

Where you provide urinals as well as toilets for men, you can adjust the toilet count accordingly. Treat these as a planning baseline, not a ceiling — if your site has shift overlaps, distant work faces or a high concentration of dirty work, provide more. A washbasin should sit at every set of toilets and at changing areas.

Common Failings HSE Inspectors Find

Welfare features regularly in HSE enforcement on small sites. The recurring problems are predictable, and avoiding them is mostly about planning rather than spend:

• No welfare at all on short jobs — the "it's only a two-day job" assumption, with workers using a neighbour's house or a public toilet.
• No hot or warm water — a toilet is provided but the wash facility is cold water only, or has run out of soap and towels.
• Dirty or unserviced toilets — units provided but never emptied or cleaned, becoming unusable within days.
• No heated rest area — workers eating in the van or on materials, with no table, seating or means to make a hot drink.
• No drinking water — or water provided with no cups and no clear marking.
• No showers on contaminated work — demolition, drainage or hazardous substance work without the showers the job requires.
• Relying on public facilities — treating the nearest café or supermarket as the site toilet.

Why Good Welfare Pays Off

Beyond avoiding enforcement, welfare is a genuine business lever for small firms. Workers who can wash properly, take a warm break and get a hot drink are more productive across a shift and lose less time to discomfort. Clean, decent facilities are one of the most visible signs of a well-run firm — they make a difference to who wants to work for you and who stays.

Retention is the quiet payoff. In a tight labour market, good tradespeople notice the difference between a firm that turns up with a proper welfare unit and one that expects them to walk to the nearest pub. Treating welfare as part of how you run a professional site, rather than a grudging cost, helps you keep good people and win work where clients care how their site is run.