Safe Use of a Scaffold Tower or Mobile Tower
Don’t risk your own life or the lives of others
The Work at Height (2005) Regulations
If you are using any item of work at height equipment in the workplace including a scaffold tower, either as an employee or as a self-employed person, the Work at Height Regulations apply to you. You must ensure that not only the person building the tower is competent but also those who specify, use and supervise or manage the use of a tower are competent to do so.
A competent person is a person who can demonstrate that they have sufficient professional or technical training, knowledge, actual experience, and authority* to enable them to:
- Carry out their assigned duties at the level of responsibility allocated to them;
- Understand any potential hazards related to the work (or equipment) under consideration;
- Detect any technical defects or omissions in that work (or equipment), recognise any implications for health and safety caused by those defects or omissions, and be able to specify a remedial action to mitigate those implications.
*Note: “authority” here means delegated authority to the individual by his employer to carry out a certain function or duty.
Find out more about competency
Basic guidelines
- You must carry out a proper risk assessment before you start work
- You must be competent to build, dismantle, carry out a pre-use inspection on the tower and complete the necessary pre-use inspection record in accordance with the regulations
- The tower components must be inspected at suitable intervals and an appropriate record kept for those inspections
If you are in any doubt about your competence and ability to comply with the regulations, then please ring PASMA on +44 (0)345 230 4041 for further advice.
Use of a scaffold tower or mobile access tower
- Never work on a platform without guardrails
- Never stand on an unprotected platform when building or dismantling a tower
- ALWAYS follow the manufacturer’s or supplier’s instruction manual
- Ensure that these manuals are available to the operatives erecting and using the tower, and to the person supervising the work
- No manual should mean no tower
Avoid serious injury by choosing your scaffold tower carefully
Tower scaffolds come in many different shapes and sizes so how can you be sure that the one you use is safe?
