Statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show falls from height as the most common work-related type of fatal accident in Great Britain in 2023/2024¹, with 50 workers killed during that period. The HSE define working at height as “work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury.” In this article, Hawkins expert Hannah Fletcher will discuss the regulations required to work safely at height, and what precautions need to be taken, including the use of safety equipment.
What is Required by the Legislation?
There are multiple pieces of legislation that apply to working at height, however the Work at Height Regulations 2005 provide specific requirements. These regulations apply to employers and those that control work at height, mandating that working at height is properly planned, supervised and, as far is as reasonably practicable, safe. Regulations place a duty on employers to ensure those planning and carrying out the work are suitably trained and competent. They outline the following hierarchy of controls that must be considered when planning work at height:
- 1 - Avoid working at height where it is reasonably practicable to do so,
- 2 - Where work has to be carried out at height, prevent a person from falling as far as is reasonably practicable.
The measures that should be considered include:
- Working safely from an existing place of work
- Using an existing means of access/egress
- Where the above is not possible, providing work equipment that prevents a fall from occurring.
- 3 -Where the measures taken under item 2 above do not eliminate the risk of a fall, work equipment should be provided to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall. Additional training and instruction should be provided and additional measures put in place to prevent a person from falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.
The Regulations give requirements for selecting and inspecting work equipment, working around fragile surfaces, and falling objects.
In practice, this means that when working at height cannot be avoided, a risk assessment that specifically addresses the risks associated with working at height needs to be completed and a safe system of work implemented.
Removing the Need to Work at Height
At the design stage of a project, the need to work at height should be removed wherever possible. For example, the use of modular or pre-cast construction techniques can greatly reduce the number of tasks that have to be undertaken at height allowing tasks to be carried out at low level in a more easily controlled environment.
During construction, careful consideration of the methodology/sequencing can also effectively reduce the number of activities that need to be undertaken at height. For example, pre-installing handrails on steel beams or pre-cast concrete elements before they are lifted into position eliminates the need for scaffolders to install them at height.
Types of Fall Protection Equipment
A wide variety of equipment is available to facilitate working at height. Some of the most used include scaffolds, aluminium towers, mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs), ladders, air bags, nets and harnesses; all of which offer differing levels of protection against falls from height.
Fall protection equipment is categorised into those that offer collective protection, i.e. measures that protect everyone working in an area, or personal protection, i.e. measures that only protect the individual wearing the protection. In general, where possible, collective protection measures should be used as they protect everyone, typically require less training for the user, and rely less on individuals making decisions.
Examples of collective protection include:
- Handrails
- Nets
- Airbags
Examples of personal protection include:
- Harnesses with restraint
- Harnesses with arrest lanyards
Fall protection can be further split into measures that prevent a fall from occurring and those that limit the distance and consequence of a fall. Preference should be given to protection methods that prevent a fall, such as harnesses with work restraint lanyards (personal fall protection) or handrails (collective fall protection).
Equipment that minimises the consequences or the distance of a fall can include harnesses with fall arrest lanyards (personal fall protection) or air bags and nets (collective fall protection). Great care should be taken when choosing to use fall arrest equipment and several factors should be considered. These include the ability of anchor points to withstand the loads from a fall, the position of the anchor to limit the potential ‘swing’ of a person during a fall, the height of any potential fall (i.e. that the equipment arrests the fall before the person comes into contact with the nearest obstruction) and how to rescue someone who has fallen.
Harness with a fall arrest lanyard and the anchor point connector
Choice of Equipment
Each piece of equipment brings benefits, but also has limitations, and the choice of equipment will be dictated by several factors including:
- The nature of the task: tools required, number of hands required, materials needed.
- The duration and frequency of the task.
- Working conditions and location including the weather, any space restrictions, the surface on which the equipment stands or from which it is restrained, other potential hazards and the potential consequences of a fall.
- Any rescue requirements should a fall occur (when considering equipment used to minimise distance/consequences of a fall).
Hawkins Investigates
At Hawkins, we regularly investigate incidents for insurance and legal professions relating to falls from height. Investigations include, the inappropriate use of and failure of working at height equipment, and falls from height from scaffolding, ladders, roofs and through fragile surfaces.
When investigating the likely cause of an accident, our investigations normally include a site visit (sometimes including the use of drone surveys) and if this is not possible, a review of any photographs taken, and the gathering and reviewing of witness evidence. We can also review safe systems of work and provide advice as to whether they were compliant with regulations and industry guidance and if the methodology chosen was suitable, or whether there were better options available.
We can also provide risk assessment and mitigation advice to developers and contractors to help make their construction sites safer and avoid incidents in the first place.
About the Author
Hannah is a Chartered Civil Engineer and since joining Hawkins in 2020 has investigated over 400 cases. She specialises in the investigation of construction site and other workplace incidents, personal injury and civil engineering incidents as well as the investigation of fires in both commercial and domestic settings.
Prior to joining Hawkins, Hannah worked for principal contractors as a Project Manager and Senior Engineer; planning and managing works on a mixture of large infrastructure and commercial construction projects in both the UK and New Zealand. During that time, she gained experience in the construction of reinforced concrete and steel structures, building envelopes, structural fire protection, ground works, temporary works and lifting operations as well as managing health and safety on site.
¹https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/fatals.htm
