This good practice guide, published by the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA), points out that falls from height are one of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries.
Where working at height is required as part of the rigging, use, maintenance, and thorough examination of mobile cranes, it should be carried out by trained personnel, following careful planning, which includes adequate assessment of the risks involved.
Working at height means work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. This document provides guidance on the issues involved.
Health and Safety legislation requires that safe systems of work are in place for all work activities. The particular references for the requirement to provide safe access, egress and a means of safe rescue are:
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. - Sections 2 and 3.
Work at Height Regulations 2005.
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 - Regulation 17.
Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998 - Regulation 3.
Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 - Regulation 3.
Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015.
The publication was updated in July 2022 to cover changes in working practices and updates to regulative requirements.
Construction Plant-hire Association August 2022