Working at Height Regulations 2005: a plain-English guide

For UK roofers, scaffolders and small firms. Guidance, not advice — your legal duties and judgement always apply.

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to any work where a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. There is no minimum height. They apply to employers, the self-employed, and anyone who controls the work of others — so a sole trader on a domestic re-roof is in scope exactly as a main contractor is.

The hierarchy: avoid, prevent, minimise

Every decision about height work follows one order. You only move down a step when the step above is not reasonably practicable.

1. Avoid working at height — do it from the ground where the job allows (assemble at ground level, use extendable tools, survey from a drone or pole camera).
2. Prevent a fall — use an existing safe place of work or collective protection such as a scaffold with guardrails, tower, MEWP or edge protection, before personal protection like a restraint harness.
3. Minimise distance and consequences — nets, airbags, soft-landing systems, then a personal fall-arrest system as the last option.

Collective protection (protects everyone, no user action needed) always ranks above personal protection (protects one person, only if worn and clipped correctly).

What the regulations require of you

• Plan the work (reg. 4) — including emergencies and rescue. A harness plan with no rescue plan is not a plan.
• Competence (reg. 5) — everyone involved must be trained and competent, or supervised by someone who is.
• Weather (reg. 4) — do not work at height when conditions endanger safety. Wind, ice, wet surfaces and failing light are all stop conditions.
• Fragile surfaces (reg. 9) — roof lights, fibre-cement sheets, liner panels and corroded decking. Use platforms, coverings or guardrails and display warning signage.
• Falling objects (reg. 10) — prevent objects falling, or exclude people from the area beneath.
• Inspection (regs. 12–13) — scaffolds inspected before first use, then at intervals not exceeding 7 days and after anything that could affect stability; ladders and equipment checked before use.

Ladders are not banned

Ladders and stepladders are lawful for low-risk, short-duration work — commonly read as up to about 30 minutes in one position — where a risk assessment shows more substantial equipment is not justified. The ladder must be secure, at roughly 75°, on firm level ground, and give three points of contact.

Scaffolding checks that catch people out

• Handover certificate before first use, and a legible scaff tag at every access point.
• 7-day inspection record, plus a fresh inspection after high winds or an alteration.
• Guardrails, intermediate rails and toe boards intact — not removed "just for today".
• Base plates, sole boards and ties present; no missing boards or trap ends.

Records to keep

The regulations do not prescribe a form, but an inspector or insurer will ask you to evidence the decision. In practice that means:

• The plan or method for the specific job, dated.
• Equipment inspection records (scaffold reports kept for 3 months after completion).
• Photographs of edge protection, anchor points, fragile-surface coverings and signage.
• Evidence of competence — cards, certificates, training records.
• Briefing sign-off from everyone on site that day.
• A record of any job you stopped, and why.

How SafeCheck 360 maps to this

SafeCheck 360 asks five questions about today's job — trade, task, place, conditions, kit and people — and returns three deterministic answers from a signed rulebook:

• What you must do — the hierarchy applied to your actual height, surface and equipment, in numbered actions.
• Proof you must keep — the smallest set of photos, records and sign-offs that covers each duty above, with why each one proves it and how long to keep it.
• When to stop — fragile surfaces, wind limits and work that needs a competent person produce a stop card, recorded in a tamper-evident evidence log.

Open the portal and run today's check →

Read the source

The regulations themselves are on legislation.gov.uk, and the HSE publishes free guidance at hse.gov.uk/work-at-height. SafeCheck 360 is a private product and is not affiliated with the Health and Safety Executive.