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The Work at Height Regulations 2005 stipulate that anyone working at height or involved in the process of working at height must be competent to do so.
Working at height presents some obvious risks that even those without health and safety training are aware of, and yet many avoidable accidents occur every year. This is often due to a lack of planning and the failure to put the adequate safety measures into place.
Recently, a futon company was prosecuted for this reason: a failure to plan maintenance work correctly and safely. A worker was clearing leaves from a factory roof valley when he fell through a plastic roof light and fell almost seven metres to the floor below. He suffered a punctured lung and a fractured spinal column, although he was very lucky not to have been killed.
The HSE investigation found that the futon company did have an accredited contractor who could safely carry out such work, but in this case, they had chosen not to use them. This decision has cost them and the worker dearly. The futon company was ordered to pay more than £20,000 in fines and court costs.