CSCS Card UK Exam Questions & Answers 2026 (21–30)

Question 1

You are about to enter a confined space to carry out maintenance work. What must be in place BEFORE you enter, in addition to a risk assessment?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

A written permit-to-work system and a trained rescue team standing by. The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 require a safe system of work that includes a permit-to-work, continuous atmospheric monitoring, and a pre-planned rescue arrangement before entry is made.

Question 2

An excavation on site is 1.8 metres deep. What is the minimum requirement to protect workers inside it from collapse?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Support the sides with appropriate battering, benching, or proprietary shoring. HSE guidance under HASAWA 1974 and CDM 2015 requires that excavations likely to collapse are made safe by battering the sides, installing proprietary trench supports, or other engineering measures before workers enter.

Question 3

Overhead power lines are present above a proposed construction access route. Which of the following control measures takes highest priority under the hierarchy of control?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Reroute the access road so that plant never travels beneath the lines. The hierarchy of control requires elimination first — rerouting the road removes the risk entirely, whereas goal-posts, banksmen, and driver instruction are lower-order controls that merely manage or reduce the hazard.

Question 4

A worker is using a class-three harness and fall-arrest lanyard attached to a single anchor point on a scaffold. The anchor point is level with the worker's waist. What is the PRIMARY additional hazard this arrangement creates compared with an anchor above the worker's head?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

The free-fall distance will be greater, increasing arrest forces on the body and risk of a swing-fall. When an anchor is at waist level rather than above the head, the worker free-falls twice the lanyard length before arrest begins; longer free-fall increases arrest forces and the risk of a pendulum swing-fall striking a structure.

Question 5

Under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, who is legally permitted to carry out a rescue from a confined space where atmospheric monitoring has detected a dangerous gas level?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

A pre-identified trained rescue team using appropriate equipment and a safe system of work. The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 require that no rescue is attempted unless adequate rescue arrangements — including a trained team, correct personal protective and resuscitation equipment, and a safe method — are established before entry.

Question 6

A principal contractor receives a notification that an excavation on site has collapsed, burying a worker for three hours before rescue. The worker is taken to hospital with fractures. Under RIDDOR 2013, what reporting obligation applies?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

The incident must be reported to the HSE immediately as a specified injury, and the site must preserve the scene. RIDDOR 2013 classifies a fracture other than to a finger, thumb, or toe as a specified injury, which must be notified to the HSE without delay (immediately by phone or online), and the scene should be preserved pending investigation.

Question 7

During a risk assessment for working at height, the assessor concludes that neither avoidance nor collective fall-prevention measures are reasonably practicable. The next step in the Work at Height Regulations 2005 hierarchy is to minimise the consequences of a fall. Which combination of measures BEST achieves this?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Personal fall-arrest equipment such as a harness with energy-absorbing lanyard, used with a correctly rated anchor, combined with a rescue plan. Where falls cannot be prevented, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 require fall-mitigation equipment — personal fall-arrest systems with certified anchors arrest the fall and limit injury, and a rescue plan addresses the risk of suspension trauma.

Question 8

What does the abbreviation COSHH stand for in UK health and safety law?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, which require employers to assess and control workers' exposure to hazardous substances.

Question 9

Under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, what is the FIRST action an employer must take when a manual handling task cannot be avoided?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Assess the risk of injury from the task. The Regulations require employers to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of any manual handling task that cannot be eliminated, before deciding on control measures.

Question 10

What colour are mandatory safety signs on a UK construction site, such as the sign requiring you to wear a hard hat?

TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Blue with a white symbol. Under the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, mandatory signs — which instruct workers to take a specific action — are blue circles with a white symbol or text.

CSCS Card UK Exam Questions & Answers 2026 (21–30)

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