PERSONAL INJURY & ACCIDENT COMPENSATION

Fall from height/construction site claims

Working at heights is specifically regulated by the Work at Height Regulations 2005 [Statutory Instrument No. 735 of 2005] amended by the Work at Height (Amendment) Regulations 2007 [Statutory Instruments No.114 of 2007].

The 2005 Regulations provide at R4 that every employer shall ensure that work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised and is carried but in a manner which is safe so far as is reasonable practicable.  So it is not just a matter of being told to get on with the job regardless.

Regulation 5 details that every employer must ensure that employees who work a height are competent to do so and have been trained or if being trained, is being supervised a by a competent person.

Clearly, no employer should instruct any employee to work at height without regard to Regulation 5.

Regulation 6 provides that working at height should be risk assessed under Regulation 3 of the Management Regulations.  Also, employers should take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.

Regulation 7 details the measures an employer should undertake in selecting work equipment for use in work at height.

Further, the Regulations address fragile surfaces, falling objects and inspection of work equipment.

Schedule 1 provides requirements for existing places of work and means of access and egress at height (Regulation 6 (4) (a).

The use of guard-rails, toe-boards, barriers and similar collective means of protection are detailed in Schedule 2 (Regulation 8).  This Schedule provides the measurements of such equipment.

Schedule 3, Part 1, details requirements for working platforms and Part 2 details additional requirements for scaffolding.

Schedule 5, Part 1 provides requirements for all personal fall protection systems and Part 2 deals with the requirements for work positioning systems (back-up systems for arresting a fall).  Part 3 deals with rope access and positioning techniques, while Parts 4 and 5 detail additional requirements for fall arrest and work restraint systems.

Lastly, Schedule 6 details requirements for ladders.

This is all very dry and boring, but it is designed to save lives and gives employers a clear set of rules to work to.  Of course, the over-riding legislation is the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.  If you have been injured by a fall from height, or by objects falling from height, or by incorrectly positioned or constructed scaffolding or staging, or by faulty arrest equipment, please contact us on freephone 0800 169 3683  for free advice on how to make a person injury claim.

We also deal with all types of construction/building site personal injury claims. Wherever the incident happened in England and Wales, we can help you gain personal injury compensation. If you were injured on a building site in Bath, Bristol or Birmingham, we can help. If you suffered personal injury on a construction site in Cardiff, Coventry or Cambridge, we can help you obtain damages. If you were injured as groundworker in Gloucester, Grimsby or Gateshead, we can advise you right here and right now. Our freephone helpline number is 0800 169 3683.