What's in the template
Three working pages to post at the entry point and one guidance sheet.
- A Permit details and validity
- B Purpose of entry and work description
- C Scope: is the space recorded as a confined space, and is entry necessary?
- D Hazards of the space
- E Isolation and hazard control, with the lockout record number
- F Gas testing and entry conditions
- G Entry team and communication
- H Equipment
- I Rescue, emergency services and authorisation
- J Closeout and cancellation
Pages 1 and 2 hold the permit, parts A to J; page 3 holds the gas test log and the entry and exit list. The guidance sheet explains the steps, when an operating procedure can replace the permit, the standby person's role and, for each requirement, the German and the Swiss rule side by side; where a country has no rule of its own, the sheet says so.
When do you need it?
For work in tanks, silos, shafts, pits and other confined spaces in Germany, the employer sets out the protective measures in writing before anyone enters. Work starts only when every measure is in place, everyone involved has been instructed and the permit is signed. Where the same work is always done under the same conditions, a written operating procedure can replace the permit.
Rules it follows
Germany
- DGUV Regel 113-004, Behälter, Silos und enge Räume (February 2020 English edition)
- DGUV Grundsatz 313-002, gas testing (Freimessen)
- DGUV Information 209-010, hot work in the space
- ArbSchG and DGUV Vorschrift 1, risk assessment and contractors
- BetrSichV §10 and TRBS 1112 for the isolation (with DGUV Regel 113-004, 4.9.1); DIN VDE 0105-100 for electrical isolation
- TRGS 900, workplace exposure limits (AGW)
Switzerland
- Accident prevention ordinance (VUV), Art. 3, 6, 9, 30, 31 and 43
- Suva guideline 1416, work in tanks and confined spaces
- Suva 1903, limit values at the workplace (MAK)
- EKAS guideline 6509, welding and cutting (written welding permit)
- Suva checklist 67042, entering sand and gravel silos
DGUV Regel 113-004 and Suva guideline 1416 checked against the current editions on 15 October 2026.