Job type vs hazard type
The New survey form asks two separate questions that are easy to conflate: job type, which sets the statutory timescale regime, and hazard type, which sets what the surveyor actually captures and which report comes out.
What it is
Job type is one of three options: Awaab’s Law — statutory timescales, Emergency — 24 hours, or General / routine. It decides whether a clock runs on this job at all, and if so which regime — the working-day track or the 24-hour emergency track.
Hazard type is a separate selector — damp & mould, excess cold, asbestos, and so on — that decides which sections the surveyor sees in the capture app and which report template gets produced. The two are independent: a job can be, for example, an emergency electrical hazard, or a general routine indoor-air-quality check.
The hazard-type picker only appears once your organisation has enabled a second hazard type beyond damp & mould. With only damp & mould enabled, every job is implicitly that hazard type and the picker stays hidden.
Before you start
Raising or editing a survey needs workOrders permission at Edit level or above.
How to do it
- On New survey, choose a Job type: Awaab’s Law — statutory timescales (investigate within 10 working days, written summary within 3 more, works begun within 5 more), Emergency — 24 hours (investigated and made safe within 24 hours, for an emergency hazard of any type), or General / routine (no statutory clock — set your own due date).
- If more than one hazard type is enabled for your organisation, choose the Hazard type. It defaults to damp & mould.
- Choosing Emergency automatically sets the case’s severity to emergency. Switching away from Emergency releases the severity back to significant rather than leaving it stuck.
How it integrates
Whether a clock actually runs is resolved server-side, and it takes more than the job type to decide:
- A General job never gets a statutory clock, whatever the hazard.
- An Emergency job gets the 24-hour clock for any hazard except asbestos, which is excluded outright — asbestos sits under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012’s duty to manage, not Awaab’s Law.
- For a non-emergency job, whether the clock runs depends on the hazard’s own phase. Today only damp & mould’s Phase 1 clock is confirmed and running. Every Phase 2 hazard — excess cold, excess heat, the three falls hazards, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical, domestic hygiene — is fully capturable now, but its statutory clock is not yet running; Phase 2 commences 30 November 2026. See How the statutory clock works and Jobs with no statutory clock, and internal targets.
The severity you record — significant or emergency — is always your own professional judgement; the platform never makes that determination for you.
Common problems
- I picked Emergency but the case shows no 24-hour countdown. Check the hazard type — asbestos jobs never carry a statutory clock, emergency or otherwise.
- A Phase 2 hazard job shows no deadline even though I marked it significant. That’s expected today — Phase 2’s clock isn’t running yet, though the survey itself captures normally and the finding is fully on record.
- I can’t see the hazard-type picker. It’s hidden until your organisation enables a second hazard type — ask an admin to check Settings → App configuration → Hazards.
Related