Work at height means work in any place where a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. That is the whole definition, and it is why there is no two metre rule in Great Britain: a fall from a low platform onto a spike or into machinery is work at height, and standing on a chair to change a light is too. Falls from height remain the single largest cause of workplace fatalities in Great Britain.
What the law asks first
Regulation 6 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 requires that work is not carried out at height where it is reasonably practicable to do it safely otherwise. That question is asked before any discussion of ladders or harnesses. Bringing the luminaire down, specifying a fitting that can be maintained from ground level, or assembling at ground level and lifting the finished unit are all better answers than a safer way of going up.
Work at height safety: the hierarchy that governs safety at height
Where work must be at height, prevent falls: use an existing safe place of work, then collective protection such as guardrails, tower scaffold or a mobile elevating work platform, then personal fall prevention such as a work restraint that stops you reaching the edge. Only where a fall cannot be prevented do you move to minimising the distance and consequences, using nets, airbags or a personal fall arrest system. Collective before personal is the ordering principle throughout.
What the working at height risk assessment has to deal with
The access and egress, the working platform and its edges, fragile surfaces, the weather including wind, falling objects and the people below, the duration of the task, the competence of the people doing it, and rescue. Rescue is the half most often missing: a worker suspended in a harness after arresting a fall has a limited time before suspension trauma becomes life threatening, and calling the fire service is not a rescue plan.
Fragile surfaces and the roof
Fragile roof lights and corroded sheeting kill people every year, usually in maintenance rather than construction. The assumption that a roof will bear weight because it looks solid is the recurring cause. Roof work needs the fragile areas identified before anyone goes up, physical protection over or under them, and edge protection, and it needs the assessment to have been made by somebody who saw the roof.
Duration is not a defence
Short duration work is where most falls happen, because the effort of setting up proper access feels disproportionate to a five minute job. The regulations make no exception for short tasks. The practical answer is having the right equipment easily available, because the barrier is almost never that people do not know what they should use.
Working at height definition: working at height is defined as a place you could fall from
There is no trigger height in Great Britain, which is the single most misunderstood point in this subject. The Regulations apply wherever a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, so a step stool in a stockroom and a flat roof are both in scope and the answer to what height counts is that the question is the wrong one. Two consequences follow. Below ground counts: a person working beside an open pit or a tank is working at height as the law means it. And a short job counts, because the Regulations set no minimum duration and the statistics on falls are dominated by brief tasks nobody planned.
What is working at height, in the regulations' own words
Work at height means work in any place where, if there were no precautions, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. Three things follow from that wording and all three catch people out. There is no minimum height: a fall into a shallow inspection pit or off a low kerb onto a spike qualifies, and the two metre figure people quote comes from a different era of guidance. It includes falling THROUGH something, so a fragile roof, a rooflight and an unprotected opening in a floor are all work at height even when the surface underfoot looks solid. And it includes access and egress to a place of work, which is why a ladder used only to get onto a flat roof is inside the regulations even if the work itself happens on the flat. What the definition excludes is a slip or trip on the level, which is covered by the general duties instead.
Questions people ask about work at height
What defines working at height?
Work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. It includes work at or below ground level and access and egress to a place of work.
What height is considered working at height?
There is no minimum height in GB law. The test is whether a fall could cause injury, not how far the fall is.
Is a ladder banned for work at height?
No. Ladders are permitted where a risk assessment shows the work is low risk and short duration, or where site features mean higher risk equipment cannot be used.
Does a rescue plan have to be written down?
The arrangements have to be planned and workable, and in practice that means written and rehearsed. A plan that consists of calling the emergency services is not a plan for someone suspended in a harness.
What does a roofing risk assessment have to cover?
The edge, the fragile surfaces, the weather on the day, and how somebody suspended after a fall is brought down quickly. Fragile rooflights are the recurring killer because they read as part of the roof, so the assessment has to say where each one is rather than that care will be taken.
What does health and safety working at height law actually require?
That the work is avoided where it can be, and where it cannot, that the fall is prevented by the work equipment before it is mitigated by anything that catches a person. The 2005 Regulations put that order in law rather than leaving it to judgement, which is why a fall arrest system sits near the bottom of the list and a tower or a platform near the top. They also require the work to be planned, the people doing it to be competent, and a rescue to be thought through before anybody goes up, because a person left suspended after a fall is a medical emergency on a clock.