Falls from height

What you will find on this page

This page provides information on working at height. It offers event organisers and workers advice and guidance to comply with the law and work safely at height.

Your duties as an event organiser

As the organiser, you must make sure that:

no work is done at height if it is safe and reasonably practicable to do it on the ground
work is properly planned, appropriately supervised, and carried out in as safe a way as is reasonably practicable
work at height takes account of weather conditions that could endanger health and safety
those working at height are competent
the risks from work at height are assessed and appropriate work equipment is selected and used
equipment for work at height is properly inspected and maintained
the risks from fragile surfaces are properly controlled
there is a plan for emergencies and rescue

For more information on your legal duties, see The Work at Height Regulations.

What you should know

Provisional figures for 2010/11 show that 20 employees died and 3957 suffered major injury in Britain after work-related falls from height.

Find out more

Detailed guidance on how to manage the risk of falls in the workplace
Common work at height tasks at events
Technical guidance on the design of scaffolds – TG20
Guide to good practice for scaffolds with tube and fittings. Where the standard layout given in TG20 cannot be used, it will be necessary to have a scaffold design prepared by a temporary works structural engineer. System scaffolds should be designed in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations
Tallescopes
Report on the stability of Tallescopes
On rope access – BS 7985:2009 Code of Practice for the use of rope access methods for industrial purposes
A review of work at height practices in the UK broadcasting industry TUV/NEL Report No 2006/201 Issue 2
A review of work at height practices by the broadcasting industry in sports stadiums used by the UK premier and Scottish premier football leagues 'Wash Up' report