Scaffolding Regulations: Rules for Builders, Contractors and Property Owners

The legal framework

Three pieces of legislation set the main requirements.

• The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places general duties on employers to protect their employees (section 2) and anyone else affected by their work, including the public (section 3). Breaches are criminal offences and fines are unlimited.
• The Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR) contain the detailed requirements for scaffolding: planning, competence, the hierarchy of fall prevention, working platforms and guardrails, and inspection.
• The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) allocate responsibility for health and safety on every construction project, and treat scaffold design as design.

Beneath the legislation sit the standards and guidance that define good practice: BS EN 12811-1 for the performance of working scaffolds, BS 5975 for temporary works procedures, and the National Access & Scaffolding Confederation’s TG20:21 technical guidance and SG4:22 fall prevention guidance. None of these has the force of law, but the HSE, the courts and insurers use them as the benchmark for what a competent scaffolder should do. The scaffolding safety guide covers SG4:22 in more detail.

Work at Height Regulations 2005

Planning and organisation (regulation 4)

Work at height must be properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out in a way that is safe so far as reasonably practicable, taking weather conditions into account. For scaffolding this means a risk assessment and method statement covering erection, alteration and dismantling.

Competence (regulation 5)

Everyone involved in work at height must be competent, or supervised by someone who is. In the UK scaffolding industry competence is evidenced by the CISRS card scheme, which has Labourer, Trainee, Scaffolder, Advanced Scaffolder, Supervisor and Scaffold Inspection cards, each linked to training and assessment. Clients and principal contractors are entitled to ask to see cards.

The hierarchy of control (regulation 6)

Avoid work at height where reasonably practicable. Where it cannot be avoided, prevent falls, using collective measures such as guardrails before personal measures such as harnesses. Where a fall cannot be prevented, minimise its distance and consequences. This is the legal basis for the SG4:22 approach of fitting advanced guardrails before relying on a harness.

Working platforms and guardrails (Schedules 2 and 3)

Schedule 2 sets the requirements for guardrails and toe boards: a top guardrail at least 950mm above the platform, with intermediate rails or other means so that no unprotected gap exceeds 470mm, and toe boards sufficient to prevent people or materials falling. Schedule 3 Part 1 sets the requirements for working platforms: adequate strength and stability, no gaps through which a person or material could fall, and enough space for the work and the people using it. The 150mm minimum toe board height commonly used in the industry comes from BS EN 12811-1 and TG20:21 rather than the regulations themselves. Regulation 10 separately requires steps to prevent objects falling and to stop anyone being struck, which is the legal basis for brick guards, fans and debris netting over pavements.

Scaffolding (regulation 8 and Schedule 3 Part 2)

Unless a scaffold is assembled to a generally recognised standard configuration, strength and stability calculations must be carried out. A scaffold built within the parameters of TG20:21 is treated as a recognised configuration and is documented by a TG20 compliance sheet. Anything outside those parameters, which includes many temporary roofs, loading bays beyond TG20 limits and unusual tie patterns, needs a bespoke design by a competent designer, usually to BS EN 12811-1 and managed under BS 5975 temporary works procedures. Schedule 3 Part 2 also requires an assembly, use and dismantling plan to be available on site, and for assembly, dismantling and significant alteration to be supervised by a competent person.

Fragile surfaces (regulation 9)

Anyone stepping off a scaffold onto a roof is covered by the requirements on fragile surfaces, which apply to roofers using the scaffold as much as to the scaffolders who built it. The roofing insurance guide covers how insurers treat that work.

Inspection (regulation 12)

Any scaffold from which a person could fall two metres or more must be inspected by a competent person:

• after installation or assembly and before first use;
• at intervals not exceeding seven days;
• after any event likely to have affected its strength or stability, such as high winds, impact or alteration.

Each inspection requires a written report, completed before the end of the shift and kept on site until the work is finished, then for a further three months. The duty to inspect falls on whoever controls the scaffold at the time. After handover that is usually the principal contractor or the user, unless the scaffolding contractor has been engaged to carry out the inspections, which should be agreed in writing. Insurers routinely ask for the inspection register and the handover certificate after an incident.

CDM 2015

CDM 2015 applies to every construction project, including domestic ones. The duty holders are:

• Client: must make suitable arrangements for managing the project, appoint a principal designer and principal contractor where more than one contractor is involved, and provide pre-construction information. On a domestic project the client’s duties pass automatically to the contractor, or to the principal contractor where there is one, so a scaffolder working directly for a homeowner takes on more responsibility than one working for a builder.
• Principal designer: coordinates health and safety in the pre-construction phase. Scaffold design, whether a TG20 compliance sheet or a bespoke design, is design under CDM.
• Principal contractor: plans, manages and monitors the construction phase, produces the construction phase plan, and is normally responsible for arranging scaffold inspections after handover.
• Contractors, including the scaffolding contractor: must plan and manage their own work, ensure their workers are competent and follow the principal contractor’s site rules.

Projects lasting more than 30 working days with more than 20 workers on site at the same time, or exceeding 500 person-days, must be notified to the HSE on form F10. Most domestic scaffolding work falls below that threshold, but the duties apply regardless.

Scaffolding on the public highway

Under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, erecting scaffolding on or over a public highway, including the footway, requires a licence from the local highway authority. The scaffolding contractor usually applies, and the property owner should confirm the licence is in place and covers the duration of the work. Licence conditions typically include minimum clearance for pedestrians, lighting during the hours of darkness, protection of the footway, warning signs, removal or guarding of ladders out of hours, and a minimum level of public liability insurance, commonly £5m or £10m. Work that obstructs the carriageway may need a temporary traffic order or road closure, and some authorities restrict erection and dismantling to quieter hours.

Hanging advertising banners, wraps or shrouds from a scaffold requires advertisement consent, and fixings into a listed building may need listed building consent. The signs guide covers advertising on scaffolds.

Other legislation that applies

• LOLER 1998 covers gin wheels, hoists and any lifting equipment used on the scaffold. Equipment used to lift people, and lifting accessories such as slings and gin wheels, need thorough examination every six months; equipment lifting materials only, every twelve months.
• PUWER 1998 applies to tools and equipment, and to mobile towers as work equipment.
• Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992: a 6.4m steel scaffold tube weighs around 28kg and boards are awkward to handle, so manual handling should be assessed in the method statement.
• RIDDOR 2013 requires the HSE to be notified of fatal and specified injuries, injuries causing more than seven days’ absence, and certain dangerous occurrences. For scaffolding these include the collapse or partial collapse of a scaffold more than 5m high, of any scaffold erected over or next to water where there is a drowning risk, and of any suspended scaffold.
• Occupiers’ Liability Acts 1957 and 1984 set the civil duty owed to visitors and, in limited circumstances, trespassers. The duty falls mainly on the site occupier, but contracts frequently pass responsibility for securing the scaffold to the scaffolding contractor, so ladder removal and alarms appear in many specifications for that reason.
• Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and HSE guidance note GS6 apply where scaffolding is erected near overhead power lines, which have caused fatalities in the trade.

What a property owner should check

If you are hiring a scaffolder directly, your CDM client duties pass to the contractor, but you still have a strong interest in the job being done properly. Before work starts:

1. Ask to see CISRS cards for the gang and a supervisor card for the person running the job.
2. Ask for the public liability and employers’ liability certificates, and check the public liability limit meets any requirement in the highway licence.
3. Confirm who is applying for the highway licence if the scaffold will stand on the pavement.
4. Agree in writing who will carry out the seven-day inspections after handover and where the register will be kept.
5. Tell your home insurer that scaffolding is going up. Many household policies require notification because a scaffold gives access to upper floors.

Regulations and insurance

Scaffolding policies are written on the basis that the insured complies with the law, and most contain a condition to that effect alongside a reasonable precautions condition. After an incident the insurer will ask for the risk assessment and method statement, the TG20 compliance sheet or design, the inspection register, the handover certificate and the CISRS cards of those involved. The scaffolding insurance overview describes what a complete policy contains, and the cost guide explains how evidence of compliance affects the premium.

The HSE’s scaffolding page and the NASC guidance library are the primary sources for the material above.

Scaffolding regulations FAQs