Hi, I was reading the WAH regs last week regarding the minimum height of guard rail and intermediate guards, etc. When reading it there was no reference to minimum for guard rails in general but it does state that for guard rails within construction work they must be 950mm and 470mm. The guard rails I am reviewing are not for construction safety purpose but to provide protection for general access and egress to a place of height. I presume the minimum requirements for construction should be used for other activities as well as best practice or have I simply misinterpret this?

The requires a guardrail to consist of a minimum two horizontal rails with a minimum height of 1100mm, however designers do also need to consider the implications of Regulation 13 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

The guards are part of access to a raised platform on permanent basis in a factory. Only short term a access required but it is contained by guarding at 970mm height. Intermediate railing is at 510mm from floor level so not incompliance with 470mm of WAH. I'm confident the WAH regs have replaced the Welfare regs requirement for working at height. I'm only reviewing this in the short term as the main recommendation is an engineering change to the structure so the work no longer requires access to a place at height. But this may be a few months until this can be totally eliminated. Thanks.

For built in guard rails i.e. part of the finished structure, the Building Regs should come into play here. A further issue is the CDM Designers Duties. IMHO this is a case where the designer has made an assumption on use that is not mirrored in real life. We all know that staff have been known to bring children to a place of work and I can honestly say that no place of work I have been in in the past 30 years has been totally child free all the time. Designers need to get away from thinking that childern never go to places of work, what about staff open days, incidents like the posted report where a parent brought a child in for a short meeting, it happens, they need to get out of the thought pattern where they design for looks not safety!