Work at Height Permit

What is Working at Height?

Working at height means any work where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, this includes work:

above ground/floor level
where a person could fall from an edge, through an opening or fragile surface, or,
where a person could fall from ground/floor level into an opening in a floor or a hole in the ground.

Work at Height Equipment

Work at height should be avoided but if this is not possible, equipment and measures must be put in place to prevent a fall occurring or to minimise the consequences of the fall. Staff who instruct others to work at heights must comply with the University's Instruction and Information on Work at Height.

A Work at Height permit must be in place for all work involving tower scaffolds, scaffolding, rope access techniques or Mobile Elevated Work Platforms (MEWPs), and must be considered for roof work and ladder usage where risk assessments deem it appropriate. (Please refer to the separate Permits SOP ES007).

A Work at Height permit would not be required for the use of step ladders, podium steps, hop up platforms, trestles (fitted with guard rails) or use of a step stool/kick stool for working at height for a short duration.

Work equipment used for working at height must be deemed suitable for the task in hand and must be routinely checked to ensure that it continues to be safe for use. Further information on inspection is included here.

All who need to use access equipment (which includes ladders and step ladders) to carry out work activities must understand the risks and suitable control measures required to mitigate those risks.

Roof Hazard Reports

The Estates Office has undertaken roof hazard surveys relating to the condition of the roof and the access to the roof of each building. The roof hazard report should be referred to when writing and evaluating risk assessments and method statements for entry onto these areas.

High and Low Risk Roofs

Please see links to the High and Low risk roof register on the right of this page.

Hazards in roof work

Falling – this could include persons tripping over plant and other services on the roof surface causing a fall on the level or a fall from height. In the most serious case this could result in a fall from the roof to the ground below.

Loss of consciousness of personnel due to the presence of poisonous gas, fume or vapour – this could be from local exhaust ventilation, fume cupboards, pipe work and ducts in buildings that are used to extract toxic and other hazardous substances and vent them externally at roof level.

Falling tools, equipment and debris – building materials, loose masonry, tools and equipment could fall from roofs creating a hazard for any pedestrians and vehicles below.

Exceeding the roof’s safe working load – The design of the roof may include materials that are either fragile surfaces or are of a construction that is not intended to have any significant load placed upon it.

Extreme weather conditions – high winds, heavy rain and ice and snow can increase the likelihood of a fall on or from a roof. Heavy winds can cause materials to be blown off the roof.

Precautions for Roof Work

As a minimum, the following precaution should be applied to High risk roofs. Please see link above to the Roof Hazard Reports and the High Risk Roof Register. Entry onto the roof must be subject to the University’s Permit System; unless working under F10 or Construction Site Possession Permit issued by the University. The permit will not be issued until a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and safe system of work has been supplied by the company or individuals undertaking the work and approved by the Permit Requester and the Permit Officer/Approver.

There are also low risk roofs across the University that do not require a permit. Entry onto these roofs must be managed by the person instructing the works to be carried out by University staff/Contractors. Please see link to Roof Hazard Report.

The whole activity should be supervised by the Works controller who has the responsibility to ensure that all of the necessary precautions are implemented and must have received training in working on roofs and signed off by the Permit Requester.

Where no edge protection is available on a roof, temporary edge protection should be considered in the first instant before resorting to fall restraint and fall arrest equipment.

If fall restraint equipment is used, a full body harness should be worn by all staff working on the roof with a fixed length lanyard attached to a tested and certified anchor point. The fixed length lanyard should be sufficiently short that the worker cannot reach within one metre of any point of fall i.e. the roof edge.

If fall arrest equipment is used, a full body harness should be worn by all staff working on the roof with a deceleration / shock absorbing lanyard attached to a tested and certified anchor point. Fall arrest equipment should only be used as a last resort when all other methods of fall prevention have been exhausted. The use of fall arrest equipment will require a minimum of two people to be working on the roof at all times so that a rescue can be initiated should a fall and unintended suspension occur.

Where fall arrest equipment is used there should be a suitable rescue plan developed in writing and in place to recover workers who fall and become suspended during the work; this must not rely on the fire and rescue service, University Community Safety Team or any other emergency services. The rescue plan must be able to be initiated and the suspended worker rescued within 30 minutes of the fall occurring.

There must be a suitable method of communication between those working on the roof and the project manager (Permit Requester) overseeing the work. This could be by radio and or mobile telephone where network coverage permits.

Suitable lighting should be available during the task where work is undertaken during hours of darkness. This can be either from existing lighting in the area or supplementary lighting installed for the task. In either case emergency lighting should be available to aid escape in the event of a power failure.

All tools used within one metre of the point of fall should be tethered on tool lanyards to help prevent falling objects.

All method statements relating to roof work should include a statement relating to the controls for working on fragile surfaces and any weight restrictions on the roof. This information should be taken from the roof hazard report.

The risk assessment should include a statement regarding adverse weather conditions and the point at which work would be suspended until the weather conditions improve. The Permit Office may suspend any roof/work at height permits if they believe weather conditions are not suitable for roof work or work at height.

RAAC

RAAC Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) is a reinforced version of autoclaved aerated concrete, commonly used in roofing and wall construction, usually formed as horizontal or vertical panels. It was used in construction in the 1950’s to the 1990’s.

In common with thousands of public organisations across the UK, we have been inspecting our buildings for RAAC. Following a detailed survey of more than 500 buildings involving expert external consultants, we are pleased to confirm that very little RAAC has been found in our buildings.

Please click on the building name below to access the drawings for that building.

List of roofs containing RAAC:

If you need a permit to access any of these roofs, please refer to the guidance in the link on the right of this page.

Further information about working at height is available on the Health & Safety Services webpages here.