Working at Height (WAH)
What needs to be remembered when Working at Height?
19 September 2020
Make work safer with CIVCONS DESIGN.
SAFETY STEPS
Below or above ground level, places where persons can be injured by falling, can be classified as ‘working at heights. This includes working on a podium, scaffold, ladder, or flat roof, falling from heights, through a fragile surface, into an opening in a floor or a hole in the ground. The important thing that must be remembered is that workers don’t need to fall from high-level heights to suffer a severe injury or even death.
Activities and work at heights occur in various industries, and many hazards will be specific to each working environment. Many accidents are failure to take sufficient precautions when commencing the works even when they are at a low level; the risk of falling can be the same. Failure to plan appropriately before starting, underestimating the risks, and placing operatives unsecured or using equipment in problematic areas can create unsafe work.
CIVCONS DESIGN is entirely compliance-driven. We provide workers with the correct PPE and sometimes deliver basic training. Providing the equipment and training for the job, we expect the operatives to understand the risks and to use the equipment correctly. In other words, if an accident happens, it is the operative’s fault.
We know that regulatory compliance alone is not enough to ensure that the operatives are kept safe and avoid serious accidents and fatalities. As a progressive company, we want a strong safety culture that can improve safety practices. Training and supervision are taken seriously, and management regularly inspects equipment and methods on-site, encouraging feedback from workers and disseminating best practices.
We care about the health, safety, and wellbeing of workers, and we will help implement positive safety behaviour. How operatives approach, the works can be influenced by a strong company’s safety culture. Working at height is a risk in business. Bets must be assessed carefully, and the work must be appropriately planned.
Arrangements of Regulations
- Reg. 1 Citation and commencement
- Reg. 2 Interpretation
- Reg. 3 Application
- Reg. 4 Organisation and planning
- Reg. 5 Competence
- Reg. 6 Avoidance of risks from work at height
- Reg. 7 General principles for selection of work equipment for work at height
- Reg. 8 Requirements for particular work
- Reg. 9 Fragile surfaces
- Reg.10 Falling objects
- Reg.11 Danger areas
- Reg.12 Inspection of work equipment
- Reg.13 Inspection of places of work at height
- Reg.14 Duties of persons at work
- Reg.15 Exemption by the Health and Safety Executive
- Reg.16 Exemption for the armed forces
- Reg.17 Amendment of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)
- Reg.18 Repeal of section 24 of the Factories Act 1961
- Schedule 1 Requirements for existing places of work and means of access or egress at height
- Schedule 2 Requirements for guardrails etc.
- Schedule 3 Requirements for working platforms
- Part 1 Requirements for all working platforms
- Part 2 Additional requirements for scaffolding
- Schedule 4 Requirements for collective safeguards for arresting falls
- Schedule 5 Requirements for Personal Fall Protection Systems
- Part 1 Requirements for all personal fall protection systems
- Part 2 Additional requirements for work positioning systems
- Part 3 Additional requirements for rope access and positioning techniques
- Part 4 Additional requirements for fall arrest systems
- Part 5 Requirements for work restraint systems
- Schedule 6 Requirements for ladders
- Schedule 7 Particulars to be included in a report of inspection
- Schedule 8 Revocation of Instruments