If you run a site, the HSE welfare requirements on UK construction sites are not optional, and they are not light reading. Get them wrong and you risk an improvement notice, a prohibition notice, a fine, or worse, a worker who quietly walks off the job because there is nowhere clean to wash. In 2026, with CDM 2015 still the framework everyone is held to, site managers and small to medium contractors need to know exactly what the law expects, what counts as enough, and how to provide it without slowing the build.
This guide pulls together what HSE and CDM Schedule 2 demand, what “suitable and sufficient” looks like in practice, and how a mobile welfare unit ticks every box from day one. If you already know what you need, get a quote from the Wigan team.
What HSE and CDM Schedule 2 actually require
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, known as CDM 2015, sit on top of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and pull the rules together for any construction project in Great Britain. Schedule 2 of CDM 2015 is the section every site manager should bookmark. It lists the welfare provisions a contractor must put on site before work starts, not after the crew has been there a week.
Schedule 2 covers six headline duties:
- Sanitary conveniences, in plain English, toilets
- Washing facilities with hot and cold running water
- A supply of fresh drinking water
- Changing rooms and lockers where workers need to change into special clothing
- Facilities for rest, including the means to prepare a hot drink and warm food
- Drying facilities where work is done in wet or dirty conditions
HSE inspectors check these as a package. Missing one of them, or providing it badly, is still a breach of CDM welfare facilities duties. Every unit in the Planet Power range is built to cover all six headline duties in a single delivery.
What “suitable and sufficient” means on site
CDM 2015 does not give you a number of toilets per worker on a sliding scale, the way some employment regulations do. Instead, it uses the phrase “suitable and sufficient”. That sounds soft, but inspectors apply it strictly. In practice it means four things:
- The facility matches the size of the crew. Two toilets for twelve workers will not pass.
- The facility matches the length of the job. A bucket and a wipe might be tolerated for half a day. It will not be tolerated for a four week refurb in Manchester.
- The facility is available when the crew needs it. Locked, switched off, or twenty minutes away does not count.
- The facility is clean, lit, heated where needed, and serviced on a written schedule.
If you cannot demonstrate all four points for every welfare provision on your site, an HSE inspector can treat the welfare as not compliant, regardless of what the unit looks like from the outside.
Need compliant welfare on site this month?
What site managers risk when welfare falls short
A welfare failure rarely stops at a written warning. The realistic outcomes for a site failing to meet UK contractors’ welfare regulations include the following:
- An improvement notice giving you a fixed deadline to fix the gap
- A prohibition notice halting works in the affected area until the welfare is in place
- Unlimited fines on summary or indictment, with directors personally exposed
- A record on the HSE public notice register that your next tier one client will check
- Lost productivity from a crew that loses faith in the site
Inspectors are not getting softer. If anything, they are looking harder at small and medium contractors, because larger principal contractors usually have the welfare paperwork wrapped up.
How a mobile welfare unit covers HSE welfare requirements in one delivery
Trying to meet Schedule 2 by stitching together a portable toilet, a kettle in the van, and a builder’s bag of bottled water is how site managers end up with a notice. A mobile welfare unit packages every Schedule 2 duty into one unit that lands on site, levels up, and switches on.
Across the Planet Power range, every unit on the Welfare Unit Hire fleet delivers:
- Flushing toilets serviced separately from the fresh water tank
- Hot and cold running water at the washbasin, with soap and paper
- A canteen area with seating, a microwave, a kettle, and a hob where the unit allows
- Mains-grade 240v power from solar with a small back-up generator
- Drying space for wet PPE and storage for work clothing
- Plumbed drinking water, not bottled
The Planet Power 6 is the right call for crews of up to six. The Planet Power 8RD steps up to eight with a dedicated rear drying room. The Planet Power 10 and the Canteen Office range handle larger and longer projects where the site manager needs a dedicated office on top of the welfare facilities. The whole range, with floor plans, is on the Our Products page.
Schedule 2 welfare is much easier to evidence to an inspector when it is all in one signed-off, serviced unit with a paper trail behind it.
Welfare across the North West, on site in 24 hours
Welfare Unit Hire runs from Wigan, with the M6, M62, M60, M58, M65 and M61 all within easy reach. A site in Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, Warrington, Bolton or St Helens can have a compliant unit on the ground inside 24 hours, often the same day if the call lands before 10am. Servicing is run in-house on a six-vehicle 4×4 pickup tanker fleet accredited by Portable Sanitation Europe, so the welfare you sign off as compliant on day one is still compliant in week six.
If the schedule is changing fast, the team can also reposition units mid-project. For phased work on highways, utilities and groundworks, that is often the difference between a unit that earns its keep and one that becomes a parking problem. Compare every model on the Our Products page or contact the team for a tailored recommendation.
Are HSE welfare requirements different on smaller construction sites?
The duty under CDM 2015 is the same regardless of project size. A two person refurb has the same Schedule 2 duties as a thirty person commercial fit-out, scaled to the crew. Small does not mean exempt.
Can I share a client's welfare facilities instead of hiring my own?
Yes, if the shared facility is “suitable and sufficient” for the combined crew and you have a written agreement on access, cleaning and servicing. Most contractors find that having a dedicated unit reduces the risk of disputes.
Do welfare units need PAT and gas safety testing?
Yes. Every unit hired from Welfare Unit Hire is delivered with current PAT and gas safety paperwork. Keep a copy in the site file.
What if my site has no mains power?
Every Planet Power unit runs on solar with a small back-up generator. No mains hook-up is needed. That is also how the units stay quiet and low carbon on the rare day the generator does run.
