Work at Height Regulations 2005, UK wide
Working at Height Safety
Falls from height remain the single largest cause of death at work in Great Britain. In the provisional 2025/26 figures they accounted for 31 of the 126 workers killed, around a quarter of the total. AL23 Safety plans, assesses and audits work at height for clients UK wide.
What is a work at height review?
A test of the plan, not a test of the harness
A work at height review starts with the task rather than the equipment. It asks whether the work needs to happen at height at all, then whether a fall can be prevented outright, then whether the distance and consequences of a fall have been reduced as far as they can be. Only then does it look at ladders, towers, platforms and fall arrest.
That order matters. Most fall incidents trace back to a decision made before anyone left the ground. A gutter was cleared from a ladder because getting a tower in was inconvenient. The review exposes those decisions and replaces them.
Who needs one
No minimum height and no easy exemption
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to any place where a person could be injured by falling. That includes work at or below ground level and access to and egress from a place of work. There is no two metre trigger for the Regulations themselves.
- Construction, refurbishment and fit-out using scaffolds, towers, mobile elevating work platforms and edge protection.
- Facilities and estates teams reaching plant, gutters, lighting and roof-mounted equipment.
- Warehousing and retail sites using ladders, steps, mezzanine edges and order picking trucks.
- Roofing, cladding and solar installation, plus any work on or near fragile surfaces such as rooflights and asbestos cement sheets.
- Anyone whose work risks objects falling onto people below, including materials handling over occupied areas.
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 sit under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and work alongside the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 on construction projects. They apply to employers, the self-employed and anyone who controls the work of others at height.
Regulation 4. Organisation and planning
Work at height is planned, appropriately supervised and carried out safely, including planning for emergencies and rescue.
Regulation 5. Competence
Anyone planning or organising work at height, supervising it or carrying it out must be competent or supervised by someone who is.
Regulation 6. The hierarchy
Avoid work at height where reasonably practicable. Where it cannot be avoided, use work equipment and measures to prevent a fall. Where the risk remains, use equipment and measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall.
Regulation 10. Fragile surfaces
No one passes across or works on a fragile surface unless it is the only reasonably practicable way, with platforms, coverings or guard rails in place and fall minimisation measures where risk remains.
Regulation 11. Falling objects
Take suitable and sufficient steps to prevent objects falling. Where that is not reasonably practicable, prevent anyone being struck.
Regulation 12. Inspection
Working platforms used for construction work from which a person could fall 2 metres or more must be inspected in position within the previous 7 days.
Collective before personal
Collective protection takes precedence over personal protection. A guard rail, a net or an airbag protects everyone in the area without depending on a person clipping on correctly. A harness protects one person, only when worn, only when attached to a suitable anchor and only when a rescue plan exists. If your control for a roof edge is a harness, we will ask why edge protection was ruled out.
The 7 day rule and its limits
Regulation 12 is specific. A working platform used for construction work from which a person could fall 2 metres or more must be inspected in position within the previous 7 days. A mobile platform must be inspected on site within the same period. The Schedule 7 report is prepared before the end of the working period, given to the responsible person within 24 hours, kept on site until the work is complete and then kept at the office for 3 months.
Be careful with the scope. That rule attaches to working platforms used for construction work above 2 metres. It is not a general seven day duty for every ladder, step or platform on site. Other equipment is inspected under regulation 12 and PUWER at intervals your risk assessment sets.
What we assess
From the task down to the rescue plan
- The task itself, tested against regulation 6 to see whether the work can be designed out or done from the ground.
- Access selection, including whether a tower, platform or podium was ruled out on evidence or on convenience.
- Edge protection, guard rails, toe boards, brick guards and the gaps where protection stops short of the working area.
- Fragile surfaces, rooflights and liner panels, plus the marking, covering and access routes around them.
- Roof access, permanent anchor systems, mansafe line certification and the rescue plan attached.
- Mobile elevating work platform selection, ground conditions, familiarisation and entrapment against overhead structures.
- Rescue arrangements, including how a suspended person is recovered before suspension trauma sets in.
- Competence, training records, refresher intervals and the method statements actually used on site.
Our process
Watch the work, then test the decisions
- 01
Scoping
We agree the sites, tasks and equipment in scope and identify recurring activities rather than only the one-off projects.
- 02
Site observation
We watch the work happen. Paperwork shows what is intended. Observation shows what is normal.
- 03
Hierarchy testing
Each activity is tested against avoid, prevent and minimise, with collective protection assessed before personal fall protection is accepted.
- 04
Regime and documentation
We write or rewrite the risk assessments, inspection schedules, permit arrangements and rescue plans, then set who signs what.
- 05
Training and verification
We train supervisors to challenge poor access decisions, then revisit to confirm the standard has held.
What you get
A regime written for the people at height
- A risk assessment set covering each recurring task, written for the people doing the work.
- A hierarchy justification record showing why the work could not be avoided and why each control was chosen.
- An inspection schedule separating regulation 12 platform inspections from PUWER equipment inspections, with Schedule 7 report templates.
- A fragile surface register and roof plan showing access routes, no-go areas and anchor points.
- A rescue plan for each fall arrest scenario, naming the equipment, the trained people and the recovery time.
What we need from you
Plans, access and the people who decide
- Roof plans, anchor system certification and previous scaffold handover documents.
- Access to a live task or to the next planned occurrence of it.
- The names of the people who plan the work, supervise it and can stop it.
Why AL23 Safety
We name the control that should be there
Accountable
Where a harness is being used and edge protection should be, we say so plainly. We do not endorse a control because it is what the site already owns.
Practical, not just compliant
Recommendations account for programme, cost and buildability. A control nobody can implement is not a control.
One team, three disciplines
Health and safety, fire safety and fire engineering in-house. Roof work on an occupied building is assessed alongside escape routes and fire strategy.
UK wide
We support work at height across the UK, on single buildings and on multi-site estates. We integrate the work with CDM duties where a project is notifiable.
Get the access decision right before the programme fixes it
One call is usually enough to find the weak point
Describe the tasks and the buildings. We will tell you where the exposure sits and what a proportionate piece of work would cover.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usNo. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 have no minimum height. They apply wherever a person could be injured by falling, including at or below ground level and during access and egress. The 2 metre figure people remember belongs to the regulation 12 inspection rule for construction working platforms.
No. Ladders and stepladders are legitimate for short duration, low risk work where a risk assessment shows more substantial equipment is not justified. The problem is not the ladder. It is the ladder used for a two hour job because nobody planned the access.
A working platform used for construction work from which a person could fall 2 metres or more must be inspected in position within the previous 7 days and after anything liable to affect its strength or stability. The Schedule 7 report goes to the responsible person within 24 hours, stays on site until the work finishes and is kept for 3 months afterwards.
Yes. This is where most fall arrest systems fail an audit. Regulation 4 requires planning for emergencies and rescue. A suspended worker needs recovering quickly. Calling the fire and rescue service is not a rescue plan on its own, exactly as it is not acceptable for confined space work.
A single building with a few recurring tasks is usually a one day visit plus reporting. A multi-site estate or an active construction project takes longer because the work has to be observed in more than one place. Cost follows the number of sites and tasks and whether roof surveys, training and rescue planning are included. If a half day gets you most of the value, we will say so.
Related services