Working at Height Risk Assessment Template: A Practical Guide for UK Tradespeople
If you search for a working at height risk assessment template, you will find dozens of generic downloads. Most of them miss the point. A template is only a prompt — the legal duty under the Work at Height Regulations 2005 is to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the actual risks in front of you, not to fill in a form. This guide explains what that assessment must cover, how to structure it properly, and what the HSE will look for if something goes wrong.
The Legal Basis
Two sets of regulations apply together:
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3 — requires every employer (and self-employed person) to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment before work begins.
- Work at Height Regulations 2005 — adds specific duties: avoid work at height where reasonably practicable; where you cannot avoid it, prevent falls; where falls cannot be prevented, mitigate the consequences.
Work at height means any place from which a person could fall and be injured, including ground level into an excavation or through a fragile surface. There is no minimum height threshold.
What a Working at Height Risk Assessment Must Cover
A template that actually works will prompt you to address every element below.
1. Task and Location Description
- Exactly what work is being done (e.g. replacing a flat roof membrane, installing guttering, fixing a ceiling)
- The working surface and surrounding environment
- Expected duration and number of operatives
2. Hazard Identification
Common hazards to record:
- Falls from leading edges, roof edges, or open voids
- Falls through fragile materials (roof lights, corroded sheets, asbestos-cement)
- Falls from or off access equipment (ladders, towers, scaffolds)
- Being struck by falling materials or tools
- Structural instability of the working surface
- Environmental factors: wind, rain, ice, proximity to overhead lines
3. Who Is at Risk
Include operatives, other trades on the same site, members of the public passing below, and anyone using the building during the work.
4. Existing Controls Already in Place
Note what is already there before you add anything — existing edge protection, permanent anchorage points, safe access routes.
5. Additional Controls — Apply the Hierarchy
The Regulations set a clear hierarchy. Your assessment must show you have worked through it in order:
| Step | Action | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eliminate the work at height | Can the task be done from ground level with a long-reach tool? |
| 2 | Prevent falls — collective protection first | Scaffold, edge protection, MEWPs, safety nets |
| 3 | Mitigate consequences — arrest systems | Harness and inertia reel, safety nets as arrester |
| 4 | Admin controls | Permit to work, exclusion zones, supervision |
| 5 | PPE (last resort) | Hard hat for those below, non-slip footwear |
PPE — including a harness — sits at the bottom of the hierarchy. A harness does not prevent a fall; it arrests one after it has begun. Record why collective measures were not practicable if you are relying on a harness alone.
6. Residual Risk Rating
Assess likelihood and severity after controls are in place. Use whatever simple matrix your system uses — the format matters less than the honest judgement.
7. Emergency and Rescue Arrangements
This is frequently missing from downloaded templates. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 (regulation 4) require you to plan for emergencies. If a worker is suspended in a harness after a fall, how will you get them down safely? Suspension trauma can be fatal within minutes. Document the rescue plan before work starts.
8. Competence and Training
Record who is competent to carry out and supervise the work. PASMA for mobile towers, IPAF for MEWPs, and manufacturer training for ladder use are all relevant. Competence is not just a certificate — it includes experience and knowledge of the specific task.
9. Inspection Records
Scaffolding must be inspected before first use, after any event that may have affected its stability, and at least every seven days (regulation 12). Record these inspections and keep them. For mobile towers and MEWPs, check pre-use inspection logs.
10. Review Trigger
State when the assessment will be reviewed — before any significant change to the task, after a near-miss, or if conditions on site change materially.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Copying a generic template without adapting it. If your assessment could apply to any job anywhere, it is not suitable and sufficient.
- No rescue plan. Regulators and coroners look for this immediately after an incident.
- Listing PPE before exhausting collective measures. The hierarchy is a legal requirement, not a suggestion.
- Treating the risk assessment as separate from the method statement. Together they form a RAMS. The risk assessment identifies what could go wrong; the method statement describes, step by step, how the work will actually be done safely. Both documents should cross-reference each other.
- Signing a blank or pre-completed form. Every operative should read and understand the assessment before starting. A signature means nothing if the person never saw the document.
Keeping It Proportionate
The HSE does not expect a 20-page document for fitting a new fascia board. Regulation 3 of the Management Regulations requires an assessment that is suitable and sufficient for the risk involved. A short task with simple, well-understood controls can be recorded briefly — but it still must be recorded, and it still must be specific.
Use a template as a checklist to make sure you have not missed anything. Then adapt every field to the actual job. That is the difference between a document that protects your workers and one that only protects you from looking like you did nothing.