BUILDING (SAFETY, HEALTH & WELFARE) REGULATIONS, 1948.
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
1948 No. 1145
FACTORIES
Building
THE BUILDING (SAFETY, HEALTH & WELFARE) REGULATIONS, 1948.31stMay 1948
1stJune 1948
1stOctober 1948
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
Reg
PART I—INTERPRETATION AND GENERAL … … 1–4
PART II—SCAFFOLDS AND MEANS OF ACCESS … … 5–33
PART III—RAISING AND LOWERING
A. Lifting Appliances … … … … … … 34–57
B. Chains, Ropes and Lifting Gear … … … … 58–65
C. Special Provisions as to Hoists … … … … 66–72
D. General … … … … … … … … 73–74
PART IV—EXCAVATIONS … … … … … … 75–78
PART V—DEMOLITION … … … … … … 79
PART VI—HEALTH AND WELFARE … … … … 80–84
PART VII—MISCELLANEOUS … … … … 85–99
PART VIII—SALE OR HIRE OF MACHINERY … … … 100
SCHEDULES
FIRST SCHEDULE—Chains and Lifting Gear excepted under Regulation 65 (as to heat treatment).
SECOND SCHEDULE—Processes to which Regulation 84 applies.
THIRD SCHEDULE—Extent of Exclusions under Regulation 2 (3).
1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6. c. 67.
The Minister of Labour and National Service by virtue of Sections 46 and 60 of the Factories Act, 1937, the Factories Act, 1937 (Extension Of Section 46) Regulations, 1948(a) and the Transfer of Functions (Factories, &c., Acts) Order, 1946(b) hereby makes as Special Regulations the Regulations set out in Parts 1 to VII hereof and by virtue of Section 17 of the Factories Act, 1937 and the Order aforesaid also makes the Regulation set out in Part VIII hereof.
PART I—INTERPRETATION AND GENERAL
Short title, commencement and revocation
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Building (Safety, Health and Welfare) Regulations, 1948, and shall, except as otherwise provided, come into force on the 1st day of October, 1948.
(2) The Building Regulations, 1926 to 1931(c), are hereby revoked.
Application of Regulations
2.—(1) These Regulations shall apply to the following operations where undertaken by way of trade or business or for the purpose of any industrial or commercial undertaking, or by or on behalf of the Crown or any municipal or other public authority, namely, the construction, structural alteration, repair or maintenance of a building (including re-pointing, re-decoration and external cleaning of the structure), the demolition of a building, and the preparation for, and laying the foundation of, an intended building whether or not the building is on or adjacent to the site of work of engineering construction within the meaning of the Factories Act, 1937, and to machinery or plant used in such operations; and Part VI of these Regulations shall apply as respects persons employed in such operations as aforesaid:
Provided that the following shall not be deemed to be buildings for the purposes of this Regulation:
Docks, harbours, wharves, quays, piers, sea defence works, lighthouses at sea, river works, canals, dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, viaducts, bridges, tunnels, sewers, pipelines, filter beds, gasholders, or pole or lattice work structures designed solely for the support of machinery, plant or electric lines.
(2) If the Chief Inspector is satisfied that in the case of any particular class or description of plant or of any special description or method of work the application of any requirement of these Regulations relating to safety or health is, in any class or description of circumstances, not necessary in the interests of safety or not reasonably practicable, he may by certificate in writing (which he may at his discretion revoke at any time) grant an exemption from that requirement in the case of that class or description of plant or of that special description or method of work in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as may be specified in the certificate.
(a) S.I. 1948 No. 707, p. 100 above.
(b) S.R. & O. 1946 No. 376, p. 88 above.
(c) S.R. & O. 1926 (No. 738) p. 541, and 1931 (No. 819) p. 415.
(3) (a) Lifting appliances, chains, ropes and lifting gear to which this paragraph applies shall, as respects the incidental or occasional use thereof in or for the purposes of operations to which these Regulations apply, be excluded from the operation of the Regulations specified in column 1 of the Third Schedule hereto to the extent specified in column 2 thereof and subject to the exceptions and conditions specified in column 3 thereof.
(b) This paragraph applies to any lifting appliance, chain, rope or lifting gear
(i) which forms part of the permanent equipment of a factory or other premises to which the safety provisions in Sections 23 and 24 of the Factories Act, 1937 apply and which is used at that factory or premises in raising or lowering for purposes other than operations to which these Regulations apply but is being used for such an operation at that factory or premises; or
(ii) which is regularly and ordinarily used in the processes of loading, unloading, moving or handling goods in, on or at any dock, wharf or quay or of loading, unloading or coaling any ship in any dock, harbour or canal, but is being used for an operation to which these Regulations apply in, on or at a dock, wharf, quay, harbour or canal.
(4) Where any article, material or other load intended for use in operations to which these Regulations apply is delivered at, or adjacent to, the site of such operations with a chain, rope or lifting gear attached thereto and designed for use as a means of raising and lowering that class of load when removing the same from the point of delivery to a position on the site, and the chain, rope or gear is free of patent defect whether of construction or quality and is not owned or hired by any contractor or employer of workmen who is undertaking any such operations as aforesaid on the site, then the requirements of Regulations 58, 59, 64 and 65 shall not apply in respect of the use of such chain, rope or lifting gear for raising or lowering the load so long as the chain, rope or gear remains attached to the article, material or load.
Interpretation
3.—(1) The Interpretation Act, 1889, applies to the interpretation of these Regulations as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.
(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them:—
"Approved" means approved for the time being by certificate of the Chief Inspector of Factories.
"Hoist" means a lifting machine, whether worked by mechanical power or not, with a carriage, platform or cage the direction of movement of which is restricted by a guide or guides.
"Ladder" does not include step-ladder.
"Ladder scaffold" means a scaffold with a working platform which is supported directly or by means of a crutch or bracket on a rung or rungs of a ladder.
"Lifting appliance" means a crab, winch, pulley block or gin wheel used for raising or lowering, and a hoist, crane, sheer legs, excavator, drag line, pile driver, pile extractor, aerial cableway or overhead runway.
"Lifting gear" means a chain sling, rope sling, ring, link, hook, shackle, swivel or eyebolt.
"Raising or lowering or as a means of suspension" where that expression occurs in Regulations 58, 59, 60, 64 and 65, means raising or lowering or as a means of suspension either of a load on a lifting appliance or lifting gear or of a scaffold but does not include the use of a rope or chain solely as a means of lashing or securing together two or more rigid members of a scaffold to form a frame or as a means of making a lapped joint.
"Safe working load" means either the relevant safe working load specified in the latest certificate of test obtained for the purposes of Regulation 52, 57, 58, 59 or 71 as the case may be, or where no such certificate is required, the relevant safe working load marked or exhibited on the lifting appliance, lifting gear, chain, rope or other article of plant or appliance.
"Scaffold" means any temporary structure on or from which persons perform work in connection with an operation to which these Regulations apply, and any temporary structure which enables persons to obtain access to or which enables materials to be taken to any place at which such work is performed, and includes any working platform, gangway, run, ladder or step-ladder (other than an independent ladder or step-ladder which does not form part of such a structure) together with any guard-rail, toe-board or other safeguards and all fixings, but does not include a lifting appliance or a structure used merely to support such an appliance or to support other machinery or plant.
"Suspended scaffold" means a scaffold suspended by means of ropes or chains and capable of being lowered or raised by such means but does not include a boatswain's chair or similar appliance.
"Trestle scaffold" includes a scaffold in which the supports for the platform are step-ladders, tripods or similar moveable contrivances.
"Working platform" includes a working stage.
Obligations under Regulations
4.—It shall be the duty of every contractor and employer of workmen who is undertaking any of the operations to which these Regulations apply
(i) to comply with such of the requirements of Regulations 5–30, 66(1) in so far as it relates to the protection of the hoistway, 73, 75, 77, 80–84, 89, 90(1), 91, 92, 93 and 95 as affect any workman employed by him; provided that the requirements of the said Regulations shall be deemed not to affect any workman if and so long as his presence in any place is not in the course of performing any work on behalf of his employer or is not expressly or impliedly authorised or permitted by his employer;
(ii) to comply with such of the requirements of Regulations 31–33, 74(1), (2), (3), (4) and (5), 76, 78, 79, 88, 90(2), 94, 96 and 97 as relate to any work, act, or operation performed or about to be performed by such contractor or employer of workmen;
and it shall be the duty of every contractor and employer of workmen who erects or alters any scaffold to comply with such of the requirements of Regulations 5–30 as relate to the erection or alteration of scaffolds...
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