Working at Height

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR), provides a legal framework to protect people where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury.

The regulations define that “work at height” (WaH) means:

• work in any place, including a place at or below ground level
• obtaining access to or egress from such place while at work, except by a staircase in a permanent workplace, where, if measures required by these Regulations were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury.

Examples would include step stool/step ladder, large ladders, accessing unprotected roofs, accessing fragile surfaces, Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) use, scaffolding use, rope access etc.

The regulations place duties on employers, and those who control any WaH activity (such as Estates and Facilities Supervisors or Managers, or others who may be required to WaH), who therefore have a responsibility to manage and minimise the risks from work activities. It is the responsibility of each individual department to make sure that all equipment they use is asset tagged and subject to appropriate inspection and maintenance. This includes the departments own / or their contractors’ ladders or stepladders. Pre-use checks should be concluded to make sure that the equipment is safe to use and if using ladders for the immediate benefit of the ladder user.