Compliance & standards
What are the Work at Height Regulations 2005?
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 are the UK regulations governing work at height. They set the duties around planning, equipment and inspection that apply to every scaffold used as a working platform.
These are the regulations behind most of the paperwork a scaffolding contractor produces. The inspection regime, the requirements for guard rails and toe boards, and the duty to plan work at height all originate here.
Regulation 12 is the one a scaffolding contractor meets most often. For a working platform from which a person could fall 2 metres or more, it requires inspection after installation or assembly in that position, inspection within the previous 7 days before use in any position, and inspection each time exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise the safety of the equipment have occurred.
They apply to the people who control the work as well as to those carrying it out, which is why a principal contractor takes an interest in a scaffolding subcontractor's records rather than treating them as somebody else's problem.
The substance rarely moves; the detail occasionally does. Anything relied on formally should be checked against the current text rather than against a summary, including this one.
What goes wrong on site
- Treating the inspection interval as the whole duty when the regulations set several triggers.
- Assuming edge protection requirements are satisfied by guard rails alone where objects could fall.
- Relying on a summary rather than the current regulations for anything contractual.