Practice questions are one of the quickest ways to find out whether you are ready for the SSSTS assessment. The 25 questions below come from a practice set published by a UK training provider and cover the ground a site supervisor is expected to know: legal duties, planning work, supervising people, and dealing with emergencies. Each answer includes the reasoning, because on the real course you are marked on understanding as much as recall.
If you are new to the course, read What Is the SSSTS Course? A Site Supervisor’s Complete Guide first so the context makes sense. If you have already done that, work through the questions before checking the answers.
Legal Duties and Regulations
1. How many staff must an employer have before a written health and safety policy is required? Answer: five. Every employer has to have a policy, but the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 only requires it to be written down once there are five or more employees. Most contractors you work with will be well over that threshold.
2. What voltage do blue cable connectors and sockets carry on site? Answer: 230 volt. Blue means 230V, yellow means 110V. Portable tools on UK sites should run on 110V wherever possible, so a blue connector on a hand tool is a warning sign for a supervisor.
9. Which regulation requires employers to consult and engage with workers about risks on site and how they are being managed? Answer: the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. CDM 2015 places a duty on contractors to consult and engage with workers about their health, safety and welfare. It is not PUWER or LOLER, which deal with work equipment and lifting equipment respectively.
15. Who is legally required to provide PPE? Answer: employers. PPE must be supplied free of charge. Workers have a duty to use it properly and report defects, but they should never be asked to buy their own.
21. Which of the following is reportable to the HSE under RIDDOR: chronic cramp, unconsciousness, or scalping? Answer: all of them. Cramp of the hand or forearm from repetitive movements is a reportable occupational disease, loss of consciousness caused by asphyxia or exposure to a harmful substance is a reportable dangerous occurrence, and scalping is a specified injury.
24. What responsibilities do workers have under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974? Answer: their own health and safety, and the safety of anyone affected by their acts and omissions. Section 7 of HASAWA makes this a personal legal duty, which is why a supervisor can reasonably expect workers to follow site rules.
Planning the Work
3. What is the main hazard when working in an enclosed space with a high level of oxygen? Answer: risk of explosion. Oxygen enrichment makes materials ignite more easily and burn more fiercely. Confined-space training tends to focus on oxygen deficiency, so this question catches people out.
5. What is the most important consideration when planning site entrances and exits? Answer: emergency vehicles. Ambulances and fire appliances must be able to reach every part of the site. Manager parking and security vehicles come a long way behind that.
6. When creating a method statement for work at height, what must be included? Answer: fall prevention measures, the order of tasks, and the equipment to be used. A method statement is the practical sequence of how the job will be done safely. The name of the first aider and the location of the hospital belong in the emergency arrangements, not the method statement.
17. When planning work at height, which option is best? Answer: prevent falls by using an existing safe place of work. The Work at Height Regulations hierarchy is: avoid working at height, then use an existing safe place, then use collective equipment that protects everyone, and only then use equipment that protects the individual.
22. For which of these would a permit-to-work system be used? Answer: hot work. Permits are reserved for high-risk, tightly controlled activities such as hot work, confined-space entry and work on live services. Night work on its own does not need a permit, and issuing permits for every activity with any risk would make the system meaningless.
Supervising People
4. What should a supervisor check before asking a worker to use a cartridge-operated tool? Answer: whether they are colour blind.
This is because cartridge colours indicate power rating.
A worker who cannot tell the cartridge colours apart could load the wrong charge, which is dangerous for them and for anyone nearby.
7. How can you ensure that workers have understood a method statement? Answer: explain it to them and test them on it. Handing out a document or watching people work does not prove understanding. Brief the team, ask questions, and record that you did so.
10. Who is more likely to require closer supervision? Answer: all of these. Young people, workers whose first language is not English, and workers new to the site all carry additional risk. None of that is a judgement on ability. It reflects unfamiliarity with the site, the language of the briefings, or the hazards of construction generally.
11. Which is the most important thing when supervising? Answer: ensuring workers understand the risks in their work environment and the measures to control them. Checking CSCS cards matters, and deadlines matter, but the core of a supervisor’s job is making sure the people doing the work know what could hurt them and how to stop it.
12. Are inductions a legal requirement? Answer: yes. CDM 2015 requires every worker to receive a suitable site induction. There is no 100-worker threshold.
13. What should a supervisor’s main priority be when manual handling takes place? Answer: eliminate manual handling as far as reasonably practicable. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations start with avoidance, then assessment, then reduction. Helping with a team lift is not a supervisory control.
14. How often should toolbox talks be carried out? Answer: regularly and as required. A fixed weekly or monthly schedule is fine as a baseline, but talks should also follow a near miss, a change in the work, or the arrival of a new hazard.
16. Are one-off visitors required to attend a site induction? Answer: yes. A visitor induction can be brief, but nobody should walk onto site without knowing the hazards, the emergency arrangements and where they can and cannot go.
20. If a worker witnesses unsafe practice on site, who should they inform? Answer: their own supervisor. That keeps the reporting line clear and lets the supervisor deal with it through the right channel rather than leaving a worker to confront a colleague or another gang.
Dealing With Hazards and Emergencies
8. You are supervising scaffolders and they have gone home for the day with the scaffold incomplete. What should you do? Answer: put up signage and prevent anyone from using it. An incomplete scaffold must be physically tagged and barriered off. Asking the scaffolders to come back or relying on word of mouth leaves the hazard open.
18. What should workers do if they come across wildlife while working? Answer: stop work and inform their supervisor. Nesting birds, bats and other protected species carry legal protection, and disturbing them is an offence. The supervisor then decides on the right course of action, which may involve an ecologist.
19. What should workers do if they think they have found asbestos? Answer: stop work immediately, inform others nearby and move away. Never take a sample. The area must be sealed off and a competent person brought in to assess it under the Control of Asbestos Regulations.
23. In the event of a suspected electrocution, what is the first action? Answer: isolate the power supply. A rescuer who touches a casualty still connected to a live source becomes a second casualty. Power off first, then first aid and ambulance.
25. How often should fire alarm call points be tested on site? Answer: weekly. A different call point should be tested each week so that every point is checked in rotation, and the tests should be recorded.
Where Supervisors Lose Marks
Looking across these 25 questions, the same patterns appear that trip people up on the real assessment:
- Hierarchies matter. Work at height, manual handling and general risk control all follow a defined order of preference. Learn the order, not just the options.
- Legal thresholds are specific. Five staff for a written policy, weekly fire alarm tests, inductions for everyone. Vague answers such as “only on big sites” are almost always wrong.
- Supervision is about understanding, not paperwork. Several questions test whether you know that briefing and checking understanding beats handing out documents.
- Emergencies start with making the scene safe. Isolate the power, seal off the asbestos, barrier the scaffold. Only then call for help.
For a second set of questions in the same style, see SSSTS Knowledge Check: 25 Questions and Answers Explained. If you are not yet sure whether SSSTS is the right route for you, or whether you need a gold Supervisor card or a black Manager card, CSCS Card Types Explained sets out the options.
How CSCS Mastery Fits Into This
Twenty-five questions is a useful check, but the SSSTS course covers far more ground than any single practice set. The SiteSafetyPlus app on our site safety page gives you over 900 SSSTS and SMSTS practice questions, each with a detailed explanation of why the answer is right and the alternatives are wrong. You can drill by topic, such as CDM 2015, RIDDOR or working at height, or sit full timed mock tests to see how you would perform under assessment conditions.
The app also includes the working tools a supervisor uses on a real project: an F10 notification checker, a risk-matrix calculator for scoring your risk assessments, a permit-to-work builder and a RIDDOR reporting guide. Practising with the tools you will actually use on site is the most reliable way to turn course content into confident supervision. Start with the questions above, then head to the site safety page to keep going.
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