WORKING AT HEIGHT FOCUS
ENSURING EQUIPMENT IS IN GOOD CONDITION
Work equipment - scaffolding, for example - needs to
be assembled or installed according to the manufacturer’s
instructions and in keeping with industry guidelines.
Where the safety of the work equipment depends on how it
has been installed or assembled, an employer should ensure
it is not used until it has been inspected in that position by a
competent person.
A competent person is someone who has the necessary
skills, experience and knowledge to manage health and safety.
Any equipment exposed to conditions that may cause it
to deteriorate, and result in a dangerous situation, should be
inspected at suitable intervals appropriate to the environment
and use. Do an inspection every time something happens
that may affect the safety or stability of the equipment, e.g.
adverse weather, accidental damage.
You are required to keep a record of any inspection for
types of work equipment, including guard rails, toe-boards,
barriers, or similar collective means of protection; working
platforms (any platform used as a place of work or as a means
of getting to and from work, e.g. a gangway) that are fixed (e.g.
a scaffold around a building) or mobile (e.g. a mobile elevated
working platform (MEWP) or scaffold tower); or a ladder.
40
HSE INTERNATIONAL
MEWPS
Any working platform used for construction work and
from which a person could fall more than 2 metres must be
inspected:
•
•
•
after assembly in any position;
after any event liable to have affected its stability;
at intervals not exceeding seven days.
Where it is a mobile platform, a new inspection and report
is not required every time it is moved to a new location on the
same site.
You must also ensure that before you use any equipment,
such as a MEWP, which has come from another business or
rental company, it is accompanied by an indication (clear to
everyone involved) when the last thorough examination has
been carried out.
“For each step, always
consider measures that
protect everyone at risk
(collective protection)
before mea sures that only
protect the individual
(personal protection).”