Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, UK wide
Confined Space Safety
Confined space incidents kill in a distinctive pattern. One person is overcome, a colleague goes in to help without protection and the rescuer dies too. AL23 Safety identifies confined spaces, designs the safe systems of work around them and tests the rescue arrangements for clients UK wide.
What is confined space safety support?
Deciding what counts, then deciding whether anyone needs to go in at all
The work has two halves. The first is identification. Many organisations hold confined spaces they have never labelled as such, simply because the space does not look like a tank. The second is control. Once a space is identified, the Regulations push you hard towards not entering it. Only then do they turn to a safe system of work for entry that is genuinely unavoidable.
We build a confined space register, classify each space against the legal definition, record the specified risks, then write the entry procedures, testing regime and emergency arrangements that make entry defensible.
Who needs one
Far more organisations than expect to
A confined space is any place that is substantially enclosed and where there is a reasonably foreseeable specified risk. Both limbs have to be satisfied. A room can be enclosed without being a confined space if no specified risk is foreseeable. A space open at the top can still be a confined space if a heavier-than-air gas collects in it.
- Water, wastewater and drainage operations entering chambers, wet wells and sewers.
- Manufacturing and food production entering vessels, silos, mixers and pits.
- Building services and facilities teams entering risers, ducts, lift pits and basement voids.
- Construction and groundworks entering excavations, manholes and shafts.
- Anyone whose contractors enter such spaces on site. Your duty to non-employees does not stop at the hatch.
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 sit under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and are supported by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. They are short and are backed by the Approved Code of Practice and guidance L101, Safe work in confined spaces. An Approved Code of Practice has special legal status. If you are prosecuted and shown not to have followed it, a court will find you at fault unless you can show you complied in some other equally effective way.
Regulation 4(1). Avoid entry
No person shall enter a confined space to carry out work if it is reasonably practicable to do that work without entry. Remote inspection, cameras, external sampling and mechanical cleaning come first.
Regulation 4(2). Safe system of work
Where entry is unavoidable, no person may enter or work in the space except under a safe system of work.
Regulation 5. Emergency arrangements
Suitable and sufficient arrangements for rescue must be in place before any person enters. They must reduce the risk to the rescuers as far as reasonably practicable.
MHSWR 1999 regulations 3, 5, 8 and 13
Risk assessment, arrangements, procedures for serious and imminent danger and the training of everyone involved.
The specified risks
A space only falls inside the Regulations where one of these is reasonably foreseeable.
- Serious injury from fire or explosion.
- Loss of consciousness arising from an increase in body temperature.
- Loss of consciousness or asphyxiation from gas, fume, vapour or the lack of oxygen.
- Drowning from an increase in the level of a liquid.
- Asphyxiation arising from a free-flowing solid or from being trapped by such a solid.
Where the rescue plan usually fails
Regulation 5 is the requirement most often missed. Arrangements must be in place before work starts, not summoned once something goes wrong. They must not depend on the fire and rescue service alone. A workable arrangement covers communication in and out of the space, rescue and resuscitation equipment suited to the actual hazards, plant shutdown procedures, first aid provision and a route for summoning the emergency services. Above all it needs rescuers who are trained, medically fit, present at the time and protected from the hazard that overcame the first casualty. If your plan is a top man with a mobile phone, you do not have a plan.
What we assess
The atmosphere, the isolation and the rescue kit
- Identification and classification of every candidate space against substantial enclosure and the specified risks.
- Whether entry can be avoided altogether, with alternatives priced and documented rather than dismissed verbally.
- Atmospheric hazards, including oxygen deficiency and enrichment, flammable gas, hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and residues of previous contents.
- Isolation, blanking, lock-off and purge arrangements for pipework, drives and electrical supplies.
- Ventilation strategy and whether forced ventilation reaches the part of the space people occupy.
- Gas detection calibration and bump test records, alarm set points and testing before and throughout entry.
- The permit to work system, its issue and cancellation controls and whether the permit reflects the actual hazard.
- Rescue equipment, tripods, winches, harnesses and resuscitation provision, plus training records for the named rescuers.
- Training and refresher intervals for entrants, supervisors, permit issuers and standby personnel.
Our process
Register it, challenge it, then prove the rescue works
- 01
Survey and register
We walk the site and build a register, recording location, access dimensions, specified risks, previous contents and classification.
- 02
Avoidance review
We challenge every routine entry. Cleaning, inspection and sampling can often be done from outside once someone with authority funds the alternative.
- 03
Safe system design
For entries that remain, we write the procedure, testing regime, isolation requirements and permit, tied to the specific space rather than a generic template.
- 04
Emergency arrangements
We specify the rescue method, equipment and people, then run a walkthrough or table-top exercise so the plan meets reality before an incident does.
- 05
Training and audit
We arrange or verify training, then re-audit live entries to check the system is used as written rather than signed at the end of the shift.
What you get
Documents tied to each space, not a generic pack
- A register with each space classified, photographed and cross-referenced to its risk assessment.
- Space-specific risk assessments naming the specified risks and controls, not one generic document.
- Written entry procedures and permit forms, with testing sequences and acceptance criteria.
- A rescue plan per space, naming the method, the equipment, the trained personnel and the expected recovery time.
- A training matrix showing who needs entrant, supervisor, permit issuer or rescue training, with refresher dates.
What we need from you
A list of spaces and a chance to watch one
- A list of tanks, chambers, vessels, pits, ducts and voids, including anything entered without a permit today.
- Your current permit system, entry procedures and training records.
- Access to a planned entry so we can observe the system as operated.
Why AL23 Safety
We question the entry before we document it
Accountable
If an entry should not be happening at all, we say so before helping you document it. Writing a procedure for an avoidable entry is not a service.
Practical, not just compliant
Procedures are written for the people at the hatch, in language that works on a wet Tuesday.
One team, three disciplines
Health and safety, fire safety and fire engineering in-house. Flammable atmospheres get looked at alongside DSEAR risk assessment rather than through a separate supplier.
UK wide
We support confined space operations across the UK. The legal duty stays with you. We design and test the system. Your organisation resources the rescuers and equipment that make it real.
Before anyone opens the next hatch
A short call will tell you whether your arrangements hold up
Tell us what your spaces are and who enters them. We will tell you which entries look avoidable and where the rescue arrangements fall short.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usUsually no. Enclosure alone is not enough. The space must be substantially enclosed and carry a reasonably foreseeable specified risk such as fire, explosion, loss of consciousness, asphyxiation or drowning. A plant room can become one where refrigerant, inert gas or fuel gas accumulates. Record that judgement in writing rather than assume it.
No. Regulation 5 requires suitable and sufficient emergency arrangements before work starts. They must not depend on the fire and rescue service alone. Response times, access to the space and the equipment carried make that reliance unsafe. Inform the service about high risk entries by all means. Resource your own recovery regardless.
Not automatically, although a permit is the normal way to demonstrate a safe system of work under regulation 4(2). ACOP L101 treats it as the expected control for anything other than the simplest entries. Where we agree a permit is unnecessary, we record the reasoning rather than leave the omission unexplained.
The procedure stands until something changes. In practice that means a review when the plant, contents, access, equipment or personnel change, plus a scheduled review at least annually. Permits themselves are single use and time limited, normally to one shift or less.
In practical terms no. The Regulations require emergency arrangements before entry, meaning someone competent stationed outside with communications and the means to raise a rescue. Solo entry defeats that. Where people work alone elsewhere on site, that risk belongs in a lone worker risk assessment.
Cost is driven by the number of spaces, plant complexity, whether the register has to be built from scratch and whether rescue exercises and training are included. A small site with six chambers is a different job from a treatment works with two hundred entries a year. A register and survey for a single site is often a one or two day visit plus reporting.
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