Work at Height Regulations and the Löfstedt review

Unions expressed concern that even though falls from height are the most common cause of workplace fatalities, the Löfstedt review singled out the Work at Height Regulations (WAHR) for review “to ensure that they do not lead people to go beyond what is proportionate”. In particular, Löfstedt suggested that including stepladders in the regulations amounted to “gold-plating”, as the Directive refers to “rungs and stiles”.

The HSE’s review of the regulations, carried out in 2012, concluded that “where problems remain with the application of WAHR they arise from misinterpretation of the requirements of the Regulations, rather than from the Regulations themselves. This misinterpretation leads some to ‘go beyond’ legal requirements, while others, such as contractors and insurers, appear to be demanding a greater level of compliance than strictly necessary in order, we think, to reduce the risk of civil litigation.”

The review recommended:

• making no changes to the WAHR;

• working collaboratively with stakeholders, businesses, particularly micro and SME’s (building trades, retail and warehousing) and employee reps through workshops and an online e-community site to:

• simplify existing work at height guidance to promote better understanding of the WAHR (particularly the “hierarchy” in regulation 6) to help ensure businesses adopt proportionate controls for work at height; and

• produce new example risk assessments covering work at different heights and particularly for low work on simple tasks involving the use of ladders/stepladders; and

• use structured online questionnaires to test the usefulness of the revised guidance and gather evidence for a forthcoming UK report on the review of Directives to the European Union (EU).