Falls from heights

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to all work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury. The regulations do not apply to the provision of instruction or leadership in caving or climbing by way of sport, recreation, team building or similar activities.

These regulations require employers to ensure:

all work at height is properly planned and organised;
those involved in work at height are competent;
the risks from work at height are assessed and appropriate work equipment is selected and used;
the risks from fragile surfaces are properly controlled; and
equipment for work at height is properly inspected and maintained.

These regulations include schedules giving requirements for existing places of work and means of access for work at height, collective fall prevention (e.g. guardrails and working platforms), collective fall arrest (e.g. nets, airbags, etc), personal fall protection (e.g. work restraints, fall arrest and rope access) and ladders.

These regulations aim to cut the number of fatal and major injuries at work caused by falls from height - in 2003 to 2004, falls from height accounted for 68 fatal accidents at work and nearly 4,000 major injuries. Falls from height remain the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the biggest causes of major injury.

These regulations set out a simple hierarchy for managing and selecting equipment for work at height. Employers must:

avoid work at height where they can;
use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls where they cannot avoid working at height; and
where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one occur.

These regulations cover a wide range of industries and activities and as an enforcing authority for health and safety, our key messages are:

those following good practice for work at height now should already be doing enough to comply with these regulations;
follow the risk assessments you have carried out for work at height activities and make sure all work at height is planned, organised and carried out by competent persons;
follow the hierarchy for managing risks from work at height - take steps to avoid, prevent or reduce risks; and
choose the right work equipment and select collective measures to prevent falls (such as guardrails and working platforms) before other measures which may only mitigate the distance and consequences of a fall (such as nets or airbags) or which may only provide personal protection from a fall."

Falls from heights is part of the FIT3 Strategic Programme.

The Health and Safety Executive have an interactive site to assist businesses to target key activities and prevent working at height accidents including an online tool (WAIT) to help businesses choose the safest type of access equipment for the task.

This page was last updated on 21 May 2012