Guides / Site sign-in and fire roll call: knowing who is on site

Site sign-in and fire roll call: knowing who is on site

Updated 1 November 2026

When the fire alarm goes, the first question at the assembly point is simple: is everyone out? You can only answer it if you know who was on site in the first place.

This guide covers what the law asks for, what HSE says about evacuation and accounting for people, and how to keep a signing-in record you can trust when it matters.

What the law says

Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the principal contractor must take the necessary steps to prevent access by unauthorised persons to the site (regulation 13(4)(b)). Knowing who has come through the gate is a big part of that.

Regulation 30 says that, where it's needed for people's health or safety, there must be arrangements for dealing with foreseeable emergencies, including evacuating the site or part of it. The arrangements must take account of things like the size and layout of the site and how many people are likely to be there at any one time. Everyone they cover must be familiar with them, and they must be tested at suitable intervals.

What HSE says about accounting for everyone

HSE's guidance, Fire safety in construction (HSG168), says escape routes should lead to a place of safety where people can assemble and be accounted for. Sites without room to assemble on site still need another way to account for everyone, and it should be part of the evacuation plan.

When you plan, HSE suggests asking how you'll confirm that everyone has reached the assembly point. Its examples are head counts, checking people off against site security logs brought to the assembly point, or wardens sweeping their areas to make sure no one has been left behind.

Whoever meets the fire and rescue service will need to tell them the likely whereabouts of anyone unaccounted for who may still be on site.

What makes a sign-in record you can trust

A roll call is only as good as the record behind it. A sign-in record that works in an emergency:

Covers everyone on site: your own people, subcontractors, visitors and delivery drivers
Records the time each person came in and went out
Is filled in at the gate, every time, not caught up on at the end of the day
Can be taken to the assembly point the moment the alarm sounds
Never marks someone as gone just because their shift has ended
Shows who is still on site after hours, so you can check they're safe

Running the roll call

Agree these before you need them, and tell everyone at induction:

Where the assembly point is, and a second one if the first can't be used
Who takes the roll call, and who covers for them when they're off
Who calls the fire and rescue service, so nobody assumes someone else has
Who meets the fire service and tells them about anyone missing and any particular risks on site
How people who don't understand spoken instructions will be told what to do
That nobody goes back in until they're told it's safe

Test it

HSE recommends checking fire alarms weekly, at the same time each week so people know it's a test, and keeping simple records. Fire drills, where the whole workforce leaves the site, are a useful way to check your arrangements work, and HSE notes the need for them grows as the building goes up and more people are on site.

Use a drill to time the roll call itself. If it takes ten minutes to work out who is missing, the record or the method needs fixing before a real alarm finds it out.

Signing in and the fire roll in Sitro

With Sitro, workers sign in and out by scanning the site poster at the gate with their phone, and visitors and delivery drivers can sign in from the same poster without an account. A scan made with no signal is kept with its time and sent later. Managers see who is on site right now, updating live, and can print the fire roll of everyone on site, workers and visitors. Sitro never signs anyone out by itself: someone still signed in after their shift has ended stays on the list, marked for the manager to check they're safe.

Site Induction: Digital inductions new starters complete on their own phone before day one.
Training Matrix: Every worker and every card on one colour-coded grid, with expiry reminders.
Labour Costs: Daily workforce cost, built automatically from your workers, rates and allocation.
Sitro vs spreadsheets, group chats and paper: Move the job out of spreadsheets, group chats and notebooks into one app.

Start a 14-day free trial, no sales call.

Questions

Is a site sign-in book a legal requirement?

The law doesn't name a sign-in book, but under CDM 2015 the principal contractor must keep unauthorised people off site and have emergency arrangements, including evacuation. A reliable record of who is on site is the usual way to do both.

Do visitors and delivery drivers need to sign in?

Yes, if you want your roll call to be complete. Anyone on site when the alarm goes needs to be accounted for.

How often should we run a fire drill?

HSE doesn't set one interval for every site. It says arrangements must be tested at suitable intervals, recommends weekly alarm tests, and notes that drills matter more as the building and the workforce grow.

Sources

This guide is general information, not legal advice.