The recommendation is 11M3 per person. Ignore any height over 2M so basically 5.5M2 per person. So total square metres floor space divided by 5.5 equals the MAXIMUM number in the room. Start subtracting filing cabinets, lockers and 0.5M3 per person for desk, chair, drawers, PC/work station you are now down at closer to 5M2 per person. Single / dual monitors is a negligible issue. For the numbers mentioned you will need to have a clear access / egress route the length of the room suitable for wheel chair access removing from the available floor plan before calculating the number of people that will fit

Hi Barney, I believe it is a minimum of 11m3 of unoccupied space per person and a height of up to 3m can be used in the calculations. So basically you'd need a room volume of at least 1980m3 just to satisfy the volume per person. Obviously this would need to be higher when taking up volume with work equipment.

Please let me know if this is incorrect as I am new to this and I am interested in improving my knowledge in H&S.

Sorry Barney#1 if I have given you incorret information.

I agree with Xavier123, in that the ACoP does not say that it has to be 11m3_unoccupied_space. Like I said, I am new to H&S and I have misinterpreted the ACoP were it talks about the floor space indicated in its calculations for providing 11m3, as not always giving sufficient unoccupied space, as required by the regulations?

I also mentioned upto 3m high can be used in the calculations because you had put "I would need to have the following" rather than "I have". Based on this, I assumed that you did not actually know your office dimensions, so I personally felt is was relevant.

Thanks for that link Steve, a very useful document.

p48

Doh, meant to say the NIA figures 'recommend'.

<edit>

Xavier:
OK – I’m going to get really pedantic and hair-splitting now, and I know this will be off-putting for many, but please bear with me as this is important. DESPITE what the HSE might have written into the Approved Code of Practice, the Workplace Regulations do NOT “require” 11m3 per person as a ‘minimum’.
Reg 10 (1) requires that “Every room where persons work shall have sufficient floor area, height and unoccupied space for purposes of health, safety and welfare.” – and that is the basic standard applicable to all workplaces.
Reg 10 (2) goes on to specify that “It shall be sufficient compliance with this regulation in a workplace which is NOT (my caps) a new workplace, a modification, an extension or a conversion AND (my caps) which, immediately before this regulation came into force in respect of it, was subject to the provisions of the Factories Act 1961, if the workplace does not contravene the provisions of Part I of Schedule 1.
Part 1 Schedule 1 (which is where the 11m3 figure is laid down) is therefore ONLY to be invoked if the workplace was subject to the Factories Act prior to 1992… In any other workplace (a workplace built since 1992, a modification, an extension or a conversion, OR AN OFFICE OR SHOP etc) the schedule is not invoked. The 11m3 ‘minimum’ is a red herring and the legal obligation is reduced to reg 10 para 1 only. i.e. area, height and unoccupied space must be “sufficient”.
What is ‘sufficient’ may need to be determined by a court – but HSE – and the prosecution – cannot rely on the schedule to the regs if the schedule to the regs is not invoked. And the ACoP is simply wrong on this point. Fundamentally for most workplaces there is simply no LEGAL ‘numerical’ standard for how much space is considered ‘sufficient’.

Thanks for that Steve, I found your posts very informative.

It can get quite complicated when you also have to consider space between desks and major route space for fire.

I usually take volume of room (but not over 3m high) take off one third for usual furniture and a bit for anything else i.e. would take a bit more off is more than one desk per person was required for their office furniture then either divide by 11 or the number of people I want to put in.
As its the ACOP which says 11 m3 I try to get as close to that as possible or have a good reason for not being close to - that usually satisfies the reg.

Times its been less than 11m3 is when office isn't occupied by everyone all day

Lilian