New Guidance on Roof Work Safety Issued

Working on roofs is risky as it involves working at height. Work at height is the single largest cause of workplace deaths in the UK. Roof work accounts for a quarter of all accidental deaths in construction.

The Health and Safety Executive have issued a 5th edition of their guide to Health and Safety in Roof Work (HSG33).

The guidance is not just for construction work, as there are other sectors who may work on roofs, e.g. maintenance workers, surveyors, demolition workers, etc.

And if you manage a property, you will need to be able to select contractors who can work safely when repairing roofs or cleaning gutters. They must be able to demonstrate to you they have sufficient and up to date knowledge and experience for the task.

Roof work should be planned to minimise risks, and an important part of this is following the hierarchy of control measures set out in the Work at Height Regulations 2005:

1. Avoid work at height where you can
2. Use equipment or other measures to prevent falls where you can’t avoid working at height, and
3. Where you cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distances and consequences of a fall should one occur.

HSG33 contains detailed and lengthy guidance on all aspects of roof work. If your business carries out or employs contractors who carry out roof work, we recommend you familiarise yourself with this guidance.

At Safety Management we have a team with unrivalled skills, experience and knowledge in this area, so if you want help to identify how to control roof work, please call us on 01327 311300, email us at office@safety-management.co.uk or visit our website.

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