To raise awareness of falls from height risks, to improve the management of working at height and to give advice on practicable control measures and enforcement action to take as appropriate.
Despite recent reductions in the falls from height major fatal and injury figures, they remain the most common kind of fatal injury and a significant contributor to major injuries. We need to sustain our effort over the next year to continue to drive down the numbers.
Falls from height incidents can occur across all employment sectors but around half of major injuries occur during building and plant maintenance activities. For the LA enforced sector, higher numbers of reported injuries are found in retail properties and office accommodation. However, enforcement officers should consider work at height issues wherever they inspect as the majority of injuries occur from low falls often where poor thought has been given to straightforward work at height tasks and inappropriate equipment used. Many injuries occur during routine maintenance work, often under the control of a building or facilities manager (but it could equally be the owner of the establishment). It is therefore important that enforcement officers speak to those responsible for managing work at height and those responsible for the fabric of the building.
Raise awareness of falls from height risks and the appropriate control measures that should be used through:
All year but front loaded in the food retail and catering and hospitality sector to follow on from the Slips, Trips and Falls publicity campaign ('Shattered Lives'); and again around Ladders Week 2008.
The 2008-09 SIM for Organisations that Procure and/or Manage Building and Plant Maintenance will be posted here very shortly.
Detailed guidance on inspections
For further information about falls from height in the workplace and the falls from height programme:
