The Work at Height Regulations 2005
| Year | 2005 |
2005 No. 735
HEALTH AND SAFETY
The Work at Height Regulations 2005
Made 16th March 2005
Laid before Parliament 16th March 2005
Coming into force 6th April 2005
The Secretary of State, in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 15(1), (2), (3)(a), (5)(b), (6)(a) and 82(3)(a) of, and paragraphs 1(1), (2) and (3), 9, 11, 14, 15(1) and 16 of Schedule 3 to, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 19741(“the 1974 Act”) and for the purpose of giving effect without modifications to proposals submitted to him by the Health and Safety Commission under section 11(2)(d) of the 1974 Act, after the carrying out by the said Commission of consultations in accordance with section 50(3) of that Act, hereby makes the following Regulations:
Citation and commencement
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and shall come into force on 6th April 2005.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
“the 1974 Act” means the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974;
“access” and “egress” include ascent and descent;
“construction work” has the meaning assigned to it by regulation 2(1) of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 19962;
“fragile surface” means a surface which would be liable to fail if any reasonably foreseeable loading were to be applied to it;
“ladder” includes a fixed ladder and a stepladder;
“line” includes rope, chain or webbing;
“the Management Regulations” means the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 19993;
“personal fall protection system” means—
(a) a fall prevention, work restraint, work positioning, fall arrest or rescue system, other than a system in which the only safeguards are collective safeguards; or
(b) rope access and positioning techniques;
“suitable” means suitable in any respect which it is reasonably foreseeable will affect the safety of any person;
“work at height” means—
(a) work in any place, including a place at or below ground level;
(b) 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;
“work equipment” means any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work (whether exclusively or not) and includes anything to which regulation 8 and Schedules 2 to 6 apply;
“working platform”—
(a) means any platform used as a place of work or as a means of access to or egress from a place of work;
(b) includes any scaffold, suspended scaffold, cradle, mobile platform, trestle, gangway, gantry and stairway which is so used.
(2) Any reference in these Regulations to the keeping of a report or copy of a report or plan shall include reference to its being kept in a form—
(a)
(a) in which it is capable of being reproduced as a printed copy when required;
(b)
(b) which is secure from loss or unauthorised interference.
Application
3.—(1) These Regulations shall apply—
(a)
(a) in Great Britain; and
(b)
(b) outside Great Britain as sections 1 to 59 and 80 to 82 of the 1974 Act apply by virtue of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Application outside Great Britain) Order 20014.
(2) The requirements imposed by these Regulations on an employer shall apply in relation to work—
(a)
(a) by an employee of his; or
(b)
(b) by any other person under his control, to the extent of his control.
(3) The requirements imposed by these Regulations on an employer shall also apply to—
(a)
(a) a self-employed person, in relation to work—
(i) by him; or
(ii) by a person under his control, to the extent of his control; and
(b)
(b) to any person other than a self-employed person, in relation to work by a person under his control, to the extent of his control.
(4) Regulations 4 to 16 of these Regulations shall not apply to or in relation to—
(a)
(a) the master and crew of a ship, or to the employer of such persons, in respect of the normal ship-board activities of a ship’s crew which—
(i) are carried out solely by the crew under the direction of the master; and
(ii) are not liable to expose persons at work other than the master and crew to a risk to their safety;
(b)
(b) a place specified in regulation 7(6) of the Docks Regulations 19885where persons are engaged in dock operations;
(c)
(c) a place specified in regulation 5(3) of the Loading and Unloading of Fishing Vessels Regulations 19886where persons are engaged in fish loading processes; or
(d)
(d) the provision of instruction or leadership to one or more persons in connection with their engagement in caving or climbing by way of sport, recreation, team building or similar activities.
(5) Regulation 11 of these Regulations shall not apply to an installation while regulation 12 of the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc) Regulations 19967apply to it.
(6) In this regulation—
(a)
(a) “caving” includes the exploration of parts of mines which are no longer worked;
(b)
(b) “climbing” includes traversing, abseiling or scrambling over natural terrain or man-made structures;
(c)
(c) “ship” includes every description of vessel used in navigation, other than a ship which forms part of Her Majesty’s Navy.
Organisation and planning
4.—(1) Every employer shall ensure that work at height is—
(a)
(a) properly planned;
(b)
(b) appropriately supervised; and
(c)
(c) carried out in a manner which is so far as is reasonably practicable safe,
and that its planning includes the selection of work equipment in accordance with regulation 7.
(2) Reference in paragraph (1) to planning of work includes planning for emergencies and rescue.
(3) Every employer shall ensure that work at height is carried out only when the weather conditions do not jeopardise the health or safety of persons involved in the work.
(4) Paragraph (3) shall not apply where members of the police, fire, ambulance or other emergency services are acting in an emergency.
Competence
5. Every employer shall ensure that no person engages in any activity, including organisation, planning and supervision, in relation to work at height or work equipment for use in such work unless he is competent to do so or, if being trained, is being supervised by a competent person.
Avoidance of risks from work at height
6.—(1) In identifying the measures required by this regulation, every employer shall take account of a risk assessment under regulation 3 of the Management Regulations.
(2) Every employer shall ensure that work is not carried out at height where it is reasonably practicable to carry out the work safely otherwise than at height.
(3) Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.
(4) The measures required by paragraph (3) shall include—
(a)
(a) his ensuring that the work is carried out—
(i) from an existing place of work; or
(ii) (in the case of obtaining access or egress) using an existing means,
which complies with Schedule 1, where it is reasonably practicable to carry it out safely and under appropriate ergonomic conditions; and
(b)
(b) where it is not reasonably practicable for the work to be carried out in accordance with sub-paragraph (a), his providing sufficient work equipment for preventing, so far as is reasonably practicable, a fall occurring.
(5) Where the measures taken under paragraph (4) do not eliminate the risk of a fall occurring, every employer shall—
(a)
(a) so far as is reasonably practicable, provide sufficient work equipment to minimise—
(i) the distance and consequences; or
(ii) where it is not reasonably practicable to minimise the distance, the consequences,
of a fall; and
(b)
(b) without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (3), provide such additional training and instruction or take other additional suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.
Selection of work equipment for work at height
7.—(1) Every employer, in selecting work equipment for use in work at height, shall—
(a)
(a) give collective protection measures priority over personal protection measures; and
(b)
(b) take account of—
(i) the working conditions and the risks to the safety of persons at the place where the work equipment is to be used;
(ii) in the case of work equipment for access and egress, the distance to be negotiated;
(iii) the distance and consequences of a potential fall;
(iv) the duration and frequency of use;
(v) the need for easy and timely evacuation and rescue in an emergency;
(vi) any additional risk posed by the use, installation or removal of that work equipment or by evacuation and rescue from it; and
(vii) the other provisions of these Regulations.
(2) An employer shall select work equipment for work at height which—
(a)
(a) has characteristics including dimensions which—
(i) are appropriate to the nature of the work to be performed and the foreseeable loadings; and
(ii) allow passage without risk; and
(b)
(b) is in other respects the most suitable work equipment, having regard in particular to the purposes specified in regulation 6.
Requirements for particular work equipment
8. Every employer shall ensure that, in the case of—
(a) a guard-rail, toe-board, barrier or similar collective means of protection, Schedule 2 is complied with;
(b) a working platform—
(i) Part 1 of Schedule 3 is complied with; and
(ii) where scaffolding is provided, Part 2 of Schedule 3 is also complied with;
(c) a net, airbag or other collective safeguard for...
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