Free working at height risk assessment template (Word download)

Falls from height are one of the biggest causes of serious injury in the trades. This template records how the work will be done, what equipment you'll use and why, and how you'll prevent falls — or limit the harm if one happens.

Download the working at height risk assessment template (.docx)

[DISCLAIMER — DRAFT, FOR SOLICITOR REVIEW] This template is a starting point only. You are responsible for assessing the risks of your own work, and for making sure any document you produce from it is suitable and sufficient for the task, the site and the people involved. It is not health and safety advice.

What's in the template

1. Document control
2. Work activity — task, location, height and duration
3. Can work at height be avoided?
4. Access equipment — what you'll use and why
5. Assessment of risk factors — edges, fragile surfaces, power lines, weather, people below
6. Risk rating — before and after controls, on a 5 × 5 scale
7. Control measures — in the order the law requires
8. Rescue plan
9. Training
10. Briefing record — sign-off sheet

What the law requires

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply wherever a person could fall a distance liable to cause injury — there is no minimum height. They set an order of controls:

1. Avoid work at height where it's reasonably practicable to do the work safely another way.
2. Where work at height can't be avoided, take measures to prevent falls.
3. Where a risk of falling remains, minimise the distance and consequences of a fall.

Choosing access equipment

Ladders and stepladders are fine for low-risk, short-duration work where the equipment can be used safely. For anything longer or higher risk, a working platform with guardrails — a tower, podium, MEWP or scaffold — is usually the better choice, because it prevents falls rather than relying on the person holding on. Record why you chose each piece of equipment in section 4.

Don't forget the rescue plan

If you use fall arrest equipment, you need a plan to rescue someone quickly if they fall and are left suspended. Calling the emergency services is not a rescue plan on its own.

Avoid working at height alone — see the lone working template — and record work at height as a hazard in your RAMS.