Key facts
- The Work at Height Regulations 2005 have no minimum height. They apply wherever a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, including from a stepladder or through an opening.
- Regulation 6 sets the order of decisions: avoid work at height where reasonably practicable; where it cannot be avoided, prevent falls; where a fall cannot be prevented, minimise its distance and consequences.
- Collective protection such as guard rails, towers and nets takes priority over personal protection such as harnesses (regulation 7).
- Planning must include emergencies and rescue (regulation 4). A harness with no rescue plan does not meet the Regulations.
- A ladder may be used only where the risk assessment shows more suitable equipment is not justified because the risk is low and the use is short, or because of site features that cannot be altered (Schedule 6).
- A construction working platform from which someone could fall 2 metres or more must have been inspected in position within the previous 7 days (regulation 12).
What counts as work at height
Work at height is work in any place where, without precautions, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. There is no two-metre threshold: that figure belongs to older construction rules replaced in 2005. A fall from a stepladder onto a concrete floor, through a rooflight or into an open service riser is covered in the same way as a fall from a scaffold.
The Regulations also protect the people below. Materials, tools and debris that could fall from height must be prevented from falling where reasonably practicable, and areas where they could still land must be marked out and kept clear.
- Roofs of any pitch, and fragile surfaces on them: rooflights, fibre-cement sheets, glass
- Ladders, stepladders and podium steps
- Mobile access towers and scaffolds
- Mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs): scissor lifts and booms
- Lorry beds, loading bays and the tops of vehicles
- Floor openings, lift shafts, stairwells and risers
- The edges of excavations, pits and tanks
- Plant, racking and ceiling voids reached from below
The hierarchy the assessment must follow
Regulation 6 does not let an assessor start with the harness. It sets an order, and the assessment has to show each step was considered before moving to the next one.
| Step | What it means | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Avoid | Do the work without anyone going to height, where reasonably practicable | Extendable poles for cleaning and painting, drones or cameras for inspection, assembling components at ground level and lifting them into place |
| Prevent: existing place of work | Work from an existing place that is already safe, such as a roof with adequate permanent edge protection | A flat roof with parapets, a plant deck with guard rails |
| Prevent: work equipment | Provide equipment that stops a fall happening, collective before personal | Scaffolds and towers with guard rails and toe boards, MEWPs, temporary edge protection, work restraint |
| Minimise | Where a fall cannot be prevented, reduce its distance and consequences, again collective before personal | Safety nets, soft landing systems, then fall arrest harnesses and lanyards |
What the risk assessment should record
The assessment is part of the job's RAMS, and a reviewer reads it against the site. Each of these should be answered for the actual job, not the trade in general.
- The task, where it is, and how long it will take at height
- The height, and what someone would fall onto or into
- How the work area is reached and left, including the access and egress route
- Edges, openings and fragile surfaces, and how each is protected, covered or marked
- The access equipment chosen, and why, especially if it is a ladder or personal fall protection
- Who erects and uses it, and their training: PASMA for towers, IPAF for MEWPs, CISRS for scaffolders
- Inspection: who inspects the equipment, when, and where the record is kept
- Weather: the conditions in which work stops, including the manufacturer's wind limits for towers and MEWPs, and who makes the call
- Falling objects: toe boards, brick guards, tool tethers, and an exclusion zone below
- Rescue: how someone who falls or is stranded will be recovered, by whom and with what
- Other people nearby: occupants, the public and other trades underneath or alongside
Choosing the access equipment
Regulation 7 requires the most suitable equipment for the work, taking account of the working conditions, the distance and consequences of a fall, how long it will be used and how often, and how easily people can be rescued from it. Collective protection comes first.
Ladders are not banned, but they have to be justified. Schedule 6 allows a ladder for work at height only where the risk assessment shows that more suitable equipment is not justified because the risk is low and the use is short, or because features of the site cannot be changed. The assessment should say which of those applies, and the ladder should be checked before use, stood on a firm level base and secured or footed.
Mobile towers are built and altered only by people trained to do it, following the manufacturer's instructions, and are inspected after assembly and before use. MEWPs are operated by trained operators, need a check of the ground they will stand on, and have a ground-level person who knows how to use the emergency lowering controls. Scaffolds are erected, altered and dismantled by competent scaffolders to a design, and are inspected before first use, at least every 7 days for construction work where a fall of 2 metres or more is possible, and after anything that could affect their stability, such as high winds.
Planning the rescue
Regulation 4 says the planning of work at height includes planning for emergencies and rescue. The plan has to exist before work starts, be specific to the equipment in use, and not depend on calling the emergency services and waiting.
Fall arrest is where rescue matters most. A person left hanging in a harness needs recovering quickly, so the RAMS should state the rescue method, the equipment kept on site for it, and who is trained to carry it out. For MEWPs, the plan names the person at ground level who can bring the platform down with the emergency controls. For towers and scaffolds, it covers how an injured person would be brought down to the ground.
Why work at height assessments get sent back
Most rejections are about the reasoning rather than the equipment.
- A ladder used by default, with no justification against Schedule 6
- A harness listed with no anchor points, no rescue method and nobody trained to use it
- Rooflights and fragile sheets not identified, or not covered and marked
- No exclusion zone or falling-object controls below the work
- Towers or MEWPs with no named, trained operator
- No inspection arrangement, or a scaffold tag out of date
- No weather limits, or nobody responsible for stopping work
- An assessment written for a different building from the one on site
Questions
Sources
The legislation and HSE guidance this guide is based on. Legislation links go to the revised text on legislation.gov.uk.
- The Work at Height Regulations 2005 · legislation.gov.uk
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 4 (organisation and planning) · legislation.gov.uk
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 6 (avoidance of risks from work at height) · legislation.gov.uk
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 7 (selection of work equipment) · legislation.gov.uk
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 12 (inspection of work equipment) · legislation.gov.uk
- Work at Height Regulations 2005, Schedule 6 (requirements for ladders) · legislation.gov.uk
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3 (risk assessment) · legislation.gov.uk
- Working at height: a brief guide (INDG401) · Health and Safety Executive
- Work at height: the law · Health and Safety Executive
- Ladders and stepladders · Health and Safety Executive
This guide is general information about UK health and safety practice. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace a competent person's assessment of your own work.
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