There are 19 Regulations in total, of which 11 actually refer to working at height, and 8 deal with definitions, changes to other Acts and special exemptions. We'll cover the Regs in order so you can scroll through and read them as we talk... The really important sections are in blue, and each Regulation can be scrolled by clicking on the name.
This simply defines the start date of the Regs as April 6th 2005.
This defines all the terms used in the rest of the text. Importantly in section (1) it defines what is meant by 'working at height', and in section (2) it clarifies how you are allowed to keep your records of equipment inspection. One change is that electronic records (spreadsheets and databases) must be secure from loss or interference - so your files have to be password-protected or controlled in some similar way. An open-to-all spreadsheet will not do!
Application. This section describes who these Regulations can apply to. It does not
define when, only who. The 'when' is based on Regulation 2 and its definition of what
'work at height' means.
Reg 3(1) to 3(3) make sure the Regs apply as do the rest of the HSAWA categories - when people are at work
and for employees, employers and the self-employed. 3(2)b makes sure that even if your workers are not
from the UK, if they're working in the UK under your control, then you are responsible for applying the
Regulations. This for example covers the use of foreign nationals as casual labour, or for non-UK firms
operating in the UK (such as touring musicians, etc).
The master and crew of a ship is exempt provided the master is solely directing the work, and no other
persons are likely to be affected. This gives crews the freedom to work normally onboard ship, climbing
masts, ladders and so forth. Also, those engaged in certain dockyard and fishing vessel loading operations
are exempted as the nature of the work cannot be changed to comply to these Regs, so they are covered by
existing and differing rules.
Reg 4(4)d exempts caving and climbing instructors (who are 'at work') however this clause will be removed in
early 2007 under the WAHR(Amendment) Order. 4(5) exempts offshore installations (wells and rigs) from
Regulation 11 which details creation of danger areas (as this is impossible on offshore platforms).
Planning. This is a short but very powerful Regulation, as it defines what employers must do when planning work at height. 4(1) is pretty obvious in asking that people plan and supervise jobs safely, and that the choice of equipment is also important at a planning stage. Reg 4(2) is really significant as it means employers must plan for rescue. This means that when you plan a job your normal planning decisions, risk assessments, protocols, permits and training MUST also account for what happens in an emergency. You have to decide in advance how to provide rescue and evacuation for your workers - which implies equipment, training, communications, procedures and much more!
Reg 4(3) makes it clear that working in dangerous weather is not acceptable, but it does not tell you what weather is or is not unsafe. That remains up to your training and planning, and will depend on the site, job, access methods and equipment. It certainly makes sure that workers cannot choose to, or be forced to, work in potentially dangerous weather. The obvious exemption in 4(4) makes sure the people trying to rescue you aren't sent home by rain!
Competence. A short and sweet Regulation, but wide-ranging. It says that everyone working, planning and supervising work at height must be competent (or supervised if still being trained). It does not define what EXACTLY is needed, but the legal definition of competence implies that the person has received training and instruction in the task, and has been assessed as of a certain suitable level of skill in applying that instruction. This normally means attending a training course or passing a qualification, rather than simply having some unofficial and undocumented experience.
Avoidance of risk. Simple enough at the start, this requires a risk assessment for all work at height, and that planners avoid working at height where reasonably practicable. Naturally this is affirming the overall HSAWA rule that workplaces should be 'as safe as practicable'. You should not climb a ladder to clean windows if you can do it from the inside, or by using long-handled tools.
4(3) and 4(4) give graduated permission to work at height. In other words you can work at height if you have to, but then you must use the safest practicable methods and equipment. You can't just decide to do ALL your work with a ladder, you must first rule out safer methods on a job-by-job basis.
Reg 4(5) is important. It says you must minimise the distance and consequences of a
fall. This means that the choice of work methods and equipment is extremely controlled - for example a
random decision to use fall arrest instead of work restraint would fail this Regulation. The length of
lanyards matters, as does the position of anchors and lifelines.
The consequences of a fall include the medical and rescue aspects of the incident. This means
that falls likely to cause above-normal injury must be prevented (such as through or onto glass, barbed wire,
electricity, chemicals, etc) and that procedures and planning must be in place to deal with the medical effects
of being suspended in a harness - in other words you have to plan how to deal with suspension trauma.
Following on from Reg 6, this requires that you use the best choice of equipment (PPE, work platforms,
ladders, access machinery and so forth) so that the safest and most efficient work can be performed. The
idea in 7(1)a of collective protection measures (nets, airbags and so forth) reflect the fact that in some
situations they can offer greater safety for large workforces - such as in construction or demolition.
7(1)b(v) again says that the choice of equipment must take into account the need to easily and rapidly
evacuate in an emergency. This implies that work equipment cannot cause undue delays in escape or rescue,
and that additional equipment may be needed to provide the rescue and evacuation ability (such as an
escape system for a crane operator, rescue kits for tower climbers or those using PPE on rooftops, etc).
7(2) is a little obscure but requires that work equipment (ropes, scaffolding, platforms, crawl boards,
cranes, etc) are suitably strong and large enough to allow the work to be done safely. This was inserted
to deal with substandard or improvised equipment or work platforms.
This looks more like an index, but it is actually the longest Regulation in the set, as it includes the Schedules attached at the back of the Regs. It basically says that work equipment (everything from guardrails and scaffolding to work platforms, harnesses, airbags, ropes and eyebolts) must comply to one or more of these Schedules. We will cover what each actually say later in this page.
Fragile surfaces. This is quite a convoluted set of statements, and governs the times and ways you are (and are not) allowed onto or near fragile surfaces (which were defined in Reg 2). Access is graduated and controlled by risk, so in order you must:
Reg 9(3) requires that fragile surfaces are signed, marked or labelled to warn workers, or if that is not possible then other warning systems (such as notices and training) must be used. 9(4) exempts emergency workers from needing to put up warning signs.
Falling objects. This is a hugely important Regulation as it is incredibly strict. They say that objects (tools, equipment, materials, parts of buildings, rocks, loose change, even people) simply cannot risk injury to people underneath the workplace. 10(1) says you must do all reasonably practicable to stop these things falling in the first place (securing tools on lanyards, using toeboards, enclosed floors on work platforms, catch netting, etc.), but 10(2) says if there is still a risk of something falling then on no occasion must anyone be in the danger area under where the worker is operating. If you can't keep the area empty, then you cannot drop anything, ever.
10(3) and 10(4) require that intentionally dropped items (tipped waste, etc) cannot be allowed to risk injury to people - so for example exclusion zones or waste chutes must be used - and that stored material must be stored safely and securely so it cannot collapse or move (such as piles of scaffolding, building materials and so forth).
A short addition to Reg 10, this requires employers to mark and control access to unsafe areas. It is there to protect 'other people' who may not be trained in height working, and so must be protected from risk by exclusion. Unprotected edges (open gates, trenches, holes, etc) must be protected, marked or some other system put into place to keep people away from danger, and the same applies to the areas underneath a hazard where the risk is from being hit by falling objects. One obvious example of this is that any deep excavation (over a metre or so) must be indicated and reasonable measures taken to prevent access (railings, barriers, etc).
Inspection of work equipment. A long and amazingly important Regulation, this has huge implications on paperwork and policy. It also includes Schedule 7 (which tells you what must be written in an inspection report) but the really dramatic part is how often you need to do the inspections, and who has to see the reports. 'Work equipment' means pretty much everything related to height safety/fall prevention/fall arrest - in fact anything that is included in Regulation 8 requires this inspection program to be followed. This therefore includes harnesses, ropes, karabiners, scaffolding, nets, airbags, guardrails, MEWPs, ladders and mobile platforms.
The requirements of clauses 12(1) to 12(4) define when and how often work equipment must be inspected. 12(2) covers all types of equipment and asks for an inspection after installation or assembly, where it may be a safety issue how it has been installed. A lot of equipment will fall into this category, from guardrails and scaffolding to rope access rigging. Some things that don't include equipment which is not 'assembled', such as a cherry picker or a stepladder.
12(3) asks for re-inspections at 'suitable intervals'. Exactly how often you need to re-inspect is not defined in the WAHR, but instead it's in the supporting regulations such as LOLER. It is up to the user to decide the frequency of inspections, based on the law and the intensity of use. Clearly 12(3)b demands a reinspection after an exceptional event, such as someone fall-arresting on an anchor or the overload system on a MEWP activating. Remember that for things like scaffolding, even weather can cause an 'exceptional circumstance'.
12(4) demands that working platforms of certain classes MUST be inspected every 7 days when in use. The idea of 'construction work' exempts some permanent systems like catwalks and gantries, but it certainly covers scaffolding, MEWPs, mobile access towers and similar. You do not have to inspect it 50 times a year, only that when you're USING it you have to have weekly inspections - so a platform not used for 6 months will have to be inspected before the first use. What is critically important is 12(7), which demands that these 7-day inspections have to be WRITTEN DOWN, have to comply to Schedule 7, and have to be provided within 24 hours. There is a lot of information in Schedule 7, and so a simple tick on a form is not acceptable. A full sheet of writing is needed every week.
It's important to clarify that this 'Schedule 7 report' only applies to WORKING PLATFORMS as covered by 12(4) - so it is not needed for your harnesses, ropes, guardrails or ladders. The inspections of these items still need to be written down - 12(6) says so - but can have far less information.
12(5) says quite simply that evidence of inspection has to accompany work equipment when it's sold, hired, loaned or borrowed between undertakings. By 'physical evidence' it means a label, a paper copy, or something similar. Verbal "oh, that ladder was inspected last week" evidence is not good enough. 'Undertakings' mean your business organisation - so a company can move equipment around amongst employees without paperwork, but cannot use (or allow to be used) another company's equipment unless the evidence is there. This will cause most impact on the borrowing of portable ladders.
12(8) to 12(10) define how these 'WAHR inspections' relate to LOLER thorough examinations, as some equipment will need those as well (such as abseil equipment, cranes and MEWPs). The wording of 12(9)a is quite complex and horribly easy to misread.. a LOLER R9 TE report can be counted as being a WAHR inspection report except as regards 12(7) and 12(8) - the bits that ask for a Schedule 7 report within 24 hours! This is important because a LOLER R9 TE report doesn't contain all the info needed in Schedule 7, so for working platforms which come under LOLER, you still need to do both types of report.
Inspection of work equipment. Tiny in comparison to Reg 11, this adds in the need to check the workplace as well as the equipment. The safety of the surface and the state of safety equipment must be checked before the workplace is used, where it is reasonably practicable. One interesting byproduct of this Reg is that those doing the work are usually the only people on the site, and so they would have to be competent in checking these factors.
Duties of persons at work. A lot of the Regs apply to 'employers', but this details what the actual workforce must do - basically they have to report anything unsafe, and to follow the training and instruction they have been given by their employer.
Reg 15 allows the HSE to exempt other classes from these Regs if they decide to, and is a normal clause in these forms of law, to allow easy modification in the future. Hypothetically, for example if another sport was found to need the exemption that caving and climbing now have, then the HSE could use this Reg to grant that exemption without having to change the law.
This allows specific and controlled exemptions in the interests of national security, and is another standard clause as is Reg 15. The Regulations apply to the Armed Forces for all their non-operational work (training, etc), but in some operational roles there is obviously a need to change the rules.
These change and revoke other sets of Regulations and Acts that would otherwise contradict the new WAHR.
This - which is part of Regulation 6(4)(a) - gives strict and wide-ranging specifications for existing places of work and means of access (such as ladders, shafts, catwalks, etc). Most of it is quite obvious and clear, asking for suitable strength, have suitable fall prevention systems, and so forth. What is potentially difficult is section (e) - the workplace and access route must have a floor surface without gaps through which a person could fall or be injured, or through which an object could fall and injure someone below. This realistically says that floors in mesh, grilles, openings for cables, services, and so on, are not acceptable if they fail (e). Platforms on masts and towers will often fail this requirement, as will catwalks in theatres and arenas.
This covers guardrails, barriers and collective protection systems (fall prevention, not fall arrest.. so nets and airbags are not here but in Schedule 4 instead). Apart from obvious clauses on the strength and suitability of these systems and the buildings they are fixed to, this Schedule famously redefines 'what is a guardrail', moving the minimum height of the top rail down to '950mm or above'. Rails already fitted can be 910mm or above, as a lot are that height. Toe boards must be 'suitable and sufficient' but there is no longer a minimum height.
Requirements for working platforms - this comes in two parts, where Part 2 applies only to scaffolding. A 'working platform' covers a wide range of things from trestles and scaffolding, through mobile towers, MEWPs, manriding cages and other temporary machinery, but it also includes permanent working platforms such as fitted to towers, masts and rooftops, or platforms and walkways suspended above ground in large buildings (theatres, arenas, factories).
Clauses (1) to (4) lay down the expected 'safe and suitable' requirements for working platforms, but clause (5) repeats the same strict 'no gap rule' as from Schedule 1 and potentially causes the same problems in how to deal with the 'non-compliant' sites such as towers.
Part 2 applies only to scaffolding, but is extremely rigorous. It requires tight control of assembly and planning, including written calculations where needed. Clause (12) is the most important as it says all assembly, dismantling or alteration to scaffolding must be supervised by competent persons, and the workers performing those tasks must be specifically trained in a full range of safety and structural skills. This effectively rules out people at work from assembling, dismantling or altering scaffolding unless they have been trained - so many builders and maintenance workers will no longer be able to do this work until they have attended some form of training.
Collective fall arrest systems such as nets, airbags, crash mats and so forth, are specified in this Schedule. Most of the clauses are self-evident and obvious, but the most important of all is Clause 2(c) - which requires a sufficient number of available persons to be trained in the use AND RESCUE FROM the safeguard. This means at least one person must be on the site who has been trained in rescue from the net or airbag, and depending on the site you may need more than one. 'Available' means able to attend in an emergency, and so given the potential urgency of a fall from height, these trained people must realistically be on the same site and not engaged in work which prevents them attending (such as being inside a confined space, up a tower crane, etc).
Clause 5 is of great interest to the manufacturers of fall arrest netting, as the framework for the net should be designed not to risk injury to the falling person. Some net designs currently do not comply to this in all configurations.
Personal FP Systems - this is a very long Schedule in 5 parts, and covers all of the 'personal' types of safety system - which usually comprise a safety harness and ropes, lanyards etc connecting the person to safe anchor points. A lot of the parts duplicate themselves, but there are some really important little sentences buried in here that we need to deal with...
Part 1 : All systems
Almost all basic common sense about strength and suitability, but 1(b) says that
people on site (the user AND some others) must have training in using the system - and not just
work training, they also need rescue training too!. This appears a lot and is what we're
calling the "internal rescue rule". Not only does the user of the system (every user) need this
rescue training, so do 'a sufficient number of available persons'. This may mean one more, it
may mean 10 more.. depends on the system and the job. These people have to be available - in other
words on the site and able to respond in an emergency, so they need all their rescue equipment
on site and ready for use (from harnesses to winches). Potentially this will cause more problems
in industry than anything else in these Regulations, as EVERYONE will have to be rescue trained.
Part 2 : Work Positioning systems
Generally things like polestraps, rooftop ropes or lanyards, these partially or wholly support the
weight of the worker within his harness. This Part asks for a second backup system (maybe a second
rope, but it can also be another class of system such as a net or airbag). Of interest is clause
1(c), which allows a work positioning system to be used WITHOUT A BACKUP if you really need to, but
you have to do all you can to prevent it from failing. One example would be to use a steel-core
polestrap to protect against breakage.
Part 3 : Rope Access systems
This draws on existing industry guidelines, but at the moment it's badly worded and needs to be
clarified, as a few things are seemingly outlawed when they shouldn't have been. Clause 1 is the
culprit, as it asks for two separate lines but says only one (the working line) is used for
support.. so using two equally-loaded lines (as on a Tyrolean) is technically not allowed.
1(c) ensures ascenders and descenders are auto-locking, so rules out things like figure-8s. 1(d)
again makes a mess of grammar as the fall protection system on the safety line must travel with
the user.. so a Rocker or Shunt is fine, but top-belaying someone is not as the device does not
travel with the user! Again, we're seeking clarification urgently on this issue.
Clause 2 demands a workseat if the worker is likely to need it, and is an anti-suspension-trauma
issue. If a worker is likely to be suspended semi-immobile for more than a very few minutes then
a workseat must be used.
Clause 3 exempts users from using two ropes in some specialist situations. One of these is
arboriculture (tree surgery) where it has been shown two ropes offer less safety, due to entanglement
and fatigue. There are other specialist areas (including some tactical operations) but in general
the two-line rule is almost impossible to escape from.
Part 4 : Fall arrest systems
A very simple little section but often people don't follow it. The idea of having an energy absorber
is established law and not an issue, but the idea of always having a clear zone and no risk of the
line being cut is much harder to follow without thought. On many towers and masts, climbers routinely
use fall arrest lanyards but underneath them is not a 'clear zone', only more bits of steelwork.
Part 5 : Work restraint systems
These are systems to prevent a worker falling in the first place, and are usually very simple rope-and-
waistbelt designs, hence the text of this section is equally simple. It has been stated by the HSE
(although not in any official legislation) that work performed entirely with restraint systems, and having
no possibility of any worker falling, do not need trained rescuers on site.
Ladders. This applies to ALL ladders (permanent, temporary, stepladders, anything) and is long but very simple and clear. It says you can only use ladders for short duration tasks and as a means of access, that you should try and use safer things instead (platforms, etc), and that the ladders muct be secured and used correctly. Nothing in this part is new or changed, and despite fears of a "ban all ladders" clause, there isn't one. Remember though, that you still have the issue of Regulation 12 and inspection paperwork to cope with!
Reports of inspection. This covers what must be recorded after an inspection performed under Regulation 12(4), and is very important as it changes what you need to record quite dramatically. Almost every current PPE inspection record system will fail to comply to Schedule 7, as of the 8 new things that must be recorded, most people have only been writing down 2 or 3 at the very most. Old records do not need to be updated but new entries from April onwards must comply with this Schedule, and so if your forms or database cannot comply then you will have to change them. Remember that these Schedule 7 reports only need to be made for working platforms used in construction and from which a person may fall 2 metres or more. Your lanyard does NOT need a Schedule 7 report.
This simply lists the legislation altered under Regulation 19.