You didn't need them before if there were no overhead hazards - the regs said if the only risk of head injury was falling down and hitting your head, you didn't need to wear one.

Your legal requirement duty is to carry out a risk assessment (that is suitable and sufficient). If your risk assessment details a potential hazard that would require head protection then you need it, if your risk assessment says that there is no such hazard then there’s no need for head protection. However if don’t identify a hazard & then subsequently have an accident that a hard hat would have prevented or minimised you won’t have much of a leg to stand on as the HSE would rightly argue that head protection is standard across the vast majority of refurbishment projects.

To be honest, only a 'dead head' would not use a hard hat on-site if there was a chance of an injury. 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...' BD. Give people a litle credit. For me, as an electrician, whould I wear one in a nursing hoem when testing? Nope. On-site with people working above me? Yep.

Quite right Buzz. Well said

I agree in theory in that they are 'old hat' (like the pun!), prescriptive and superfluous. However, I still fear that removing them will dilute the take up of head protection. I'm a bit out of touch with the construction industry these days so please correct me if I am wrong but I would imagine that many construction workers may not know what the PPE Regulations are or what the Head Protection Regulations are? - but they do know that wearing a hard had on site is the law? If my assumption is correct, then removing the hard hat regulations may well result in misunderstandings in the press - a bit like the working at height regulations and all the misinformation that you couldn't use ladders anymore - or even COSHH and accounts of you have to pay expensive consultants to carry out COSHH assessments on a bottle of tippex. I can picture it now; The article in the Daily Wail: " PM hits back at health and safety monster - a victory for common sense: Our marvellous PM has fought against the excessive jobs-worth red-tape health and safety monster and removed pointless rules and regulations such as the over the top laws making builders wear hard hats on construction sites. Builder Roy Hobbs says "This fantastic news. My wife used to hate me coming home with greasy hair from wearing a hard hat all day. Now I can come home with my lovely hair in place." Site Agent, Joe Bloggs said "This is a victory for common sense. Previously I had to price in the costs of hard hats into the job. Now I can make some great cost savings which can ultimately passed onto our client".