Work at height assessment

How to assess work at height the way the regulations expect

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 set a strict order of priorities — a hierarchy — that your assessment has to follow. You can't jump straight to choosing a ladder or a harness; you have to show you worked through it:

• Avoid — don't work at height at all where it's reasonably practicable (assemble at ground level, use extension tools, redesign the job).
• Prevent — if you can't avoid it, stop falls happening: a safe existing place, then collective protection like guardrails and working platforms before personal protection like harnesses.
• Minimise — where a fall can't be prevented, reduce the distance and consequences with collective measures (safety nets, soft-landing) before relying on personal fall arrest.

This tool prompts the avoid/prevent decision first, then tailors the control checklist to the access method you actually intend to use, and forces the rescue plan for any work that relies on a harness or a MEWP.

Why this matters

Falls from height are the single biggest killer in UK workplaces. In 2024/25 they accounted for 35 worker deaths — over a quarter of all work-related fatalities — and construction had the highest fatality count of any industry. Getting the access method and the rescue plan right is not paperwork; it is the difference that keeps people alive.

Ladders aren't banned — but they have to be justified

There is a persistent myth that ladders were outlawed. They weren't. The Work at Height Regulations expressly allow ladders and stepladders where a risk assessment shows the work is low-risk and short-duration and more suitable equipment isn't justified. HSE guidance treats roughly 30 minutes in one position as the working interpretation of "short duration". The duty is to justify the ladder — set it at 75°, secure it, keep three points of contact — not to avoid it on principle.

The rescue plan is the part reviewers check first

For harness and MEWP work, a rescue plan is mandatory (WAHR 2005, Reg. 4). A worker left suspended in a harness can suffer suspension trauma within minutes — far faster than the fire service can reach them — so a plan that relies on calling 999 is not a plan. You need a named, trained person on site, the right recovery kit, and a maximum suspension time. For a MEWP, that means someone on the ground who can work the emergency lowering controls.

Further reading: HSE's work at height pages, assessing all work at height, and the brief guide INDG401. Ladder specifics are in INDG455.

This tool structures an assessment — it is not approval to proceed. A competent person must review the full RAMS and the actual site conditions before any work at height starts.