---
id: KB-CS-042
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/use-cases-by-sector/the-site-that-lets-outside-companies-in
idioma: en
categoria: casos-por-sector
subcategoria: sanitario
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CS-041, KB-CS-040]
citadoPor: [KB-CS-043, KB-CN-027, KB-CN-033]
---

# The site that lets outside companies in

_Eight outside companies work inside your premises every week. If anyone asks who was there on Tuesday, the answer has to exist before the question does._

**Responde a:** what documents to require from a contractor · controlling contractor access to a site · how to know if a supplier is up to date · auditor asking about outside companies

A hospital, a care home, a school, a plant or a shopping centre share something a building site does not: **they are running**. Inside there are patients, pupils, residents, customers or a live production line, and on top of that outside companies come in to clean, repair, serve meals or inspect installations. You open the door, and that puts you in a specific position: **you do not do the work and you answer for having allowed it**.

## The three questions that arrive, and where each answer comes from

| Question | Who asks | What answers it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Is this supplier current? | Your own team, daily | The supplier record — if someone looks at it |
| Who came in on Tuesday? | A review, weeks later | The access log matched against who was authorised |
| Under what cover did they enter? | A review or an insurer | The document valid **that day**, not today's |
| **And the supplier's subcontractor?** | **Almost always, late** | **Knowing they existed before they came in** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Asking for documentation once, at supplier onboarding, is exactly the same as not asking.** What makes this position useful is not holding a folder of what they sent in January: it is knowing, today, which of those eight companies has let something lapse. Supplier documentation is not an onboarding requirement, it is a state that changes on its own — and it changes for the worse, always quietly.

## What is worth settling

1. **What is required from each kind of supplier** — Night cleaning and touching a critical installation are not the same ask.
2. **Who authorises, and with what in front of them** — If reception authorises and someone else keeps the folder, the door wins every time.
3. **What happens when the supplier sends someone new** — It is the norm, not the exception, and it is where things slip through.
4. **And if the supplier subcontracts** — Decide before it happens, because afterwards it already has.

> [!WARNING]
> The blind spot of this position: **the supplier complies and their subcontractor does not exist as far as you are concerned**. You contracted one company, vetted it, and on the day a van turns up with a different name on it. If nobody decided in advance whether that is allowed and on what paperwork, the decision falls to whoever is on reception at seven in the morning with the job waiting. It never ends well: either they come in unvetted or a needed service is stopped.

> [!NOTE]
> What documentation you may require, what coordination and information duties fall on the occupying company, and what applies to personal data of other firms' workers handed to you **depends on the sector and is settled by your adviser or prevention service**. Here we cover the organisational part: how to keep it current and how to answer about a past date.

**May I store another company's workers' documents?**

With a purpose and a retention period. Your data-protection adviser settles that.

**How often should it be reviewed?**

It should not be reviewed: you should be told when it expires. That is different and far cheaper.

**What if the supplier is slow to send it?**

Having the request and its reminder go out on their own avoids the conversation entirely.

## Ejemplos

**Eight companies work inside and nobody knows which has let something lapse.**

- Shows each supplier's status and warns about what is due

→ Follow-up stops depending on someone opening the folder.

**A review asks who came in on a specific Tuesday and under what cover.**

- Keeps each document with its period of validity

→ The answer uses that day's date rather than today's.

**The supplier sends a new technician on the day of the job.**

- Checks per person before authorising entry

→ A new starter is resolved before the door, not at it.

**A van turns up carrying the name of a subcontractor nobody expected.**

- Records which companies may enter under each contract

→ Reception decides from a list instead of a phone call.

**Chasing every supplier by email costs a morning a week.**

- Requests the documentation and chases on its own until it arrives

→ The morning is recovered and the answer still comes.

**Each department keeps its own suppliers' papers in its own folder.**

- Brings supplier files together in one place

→ The question is answered once rather than department by department.