Work at Height regulations under threat

2,400 laws could be 'sunsetted' if new Bill is passed. One of thew laws at risk is Work at Height Regulations.

The government could scrap the UK’s Work at Height Regulations at the end of 2023 unless campaigners can convince ministers to retain them. This warning came from the Access Industry Forum (AIF), which represents the 10 principal trade associations and federations involved in work at height.

The 2005 Work at Height Regulations extended protection to people in all industries who work at height. Falling from height is still the most common cause of workplace fatalities – there have been 683 since 2005. Provisional figures for 2021/22 show that of 30 fatal accidents involving construction workers, 13 were falls from height.

Following Brexit, the regulations governing work at height are covered by the Retained EU Law (Revocation

2005

Campaigners calling for rethink on Working at Height laws

and Reform) Bill which is currently passing through Parliament. This Bill seeks to remove EU-derived laws that remain on the UK statute book after Brexit. It proposes to ‘sunset’ more than 2,400 laws, one of which is the Work at Height Regulations.

If the Bill passes, the laws will be axed automatically on 31 December 2023 unless the government takes action to save individual regulations.

A coalition spearheaded by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), representing 10,000 safety organisations has called for more time to scrutinise the bill and separately NASC has written to Grant Shapps about this issue, and has also collaborated on letters from the Access Industry Forum and from Build UK.