Looks like your ladder was designed to BS 5395 Pt3 1985 whereby a square-ish back hoop was featured. Dimensions should not be < 690mm or > 760mm dia. A later standard BS EN 14122 Pt 4 - 2004 - 'Permanent means of access to machinery - fixed ladders' specifies back hoops of between 650mmm to 800mm dia.

Remember British Standards (which are copyright) are not law but they are very useful codes or guidance and ideal for defining contract specifications. They (and Building Regulations) are rarely retrospective, so you don't have to keep modifying or replacing ladders just because the latest spec' has changed. Your ladder was probably compliant at the time of build and whether you wish to bring up to modern specification is up to your risk assessment and your employers wallet.

British Standards can be purchased individually from the BSi web site.

Hope this helps.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr258.htm

Notable for being incredibly long and substantially useless. It concludes that things aren't what they might seem, and something should be done. It's the equivalent of asking for directions and being told you shouldn't start from here.

If you actually want to know whether your ladder should or should not have hoops, it doesn't help. At least, it hasn't helped me.

I was looking through the workplace regs the other day after instaling an internal access ladder for access to plant on the roof.

Workplace Health safety and welfare Regs……….Pg 26-27


123 Where a ladder passes through a floor, the opening should be as small as possible. The opening should be fenced as far as possible, and a gate should be provided where necessary to prevent falls.

124 Fixed ladders at an angle of less than 15 degrees to the vertical (a pitch of more than 75 degrees) which are more than 2.5 m high should where possible be fitted with suitable safety hoops or permanently fixed fall arrest systems. Hoops should be at intervals of not more than 900 mm measured along the stiles, and should commence at a height of 2.5 m above the base of the ladder. The top hoop should be in line with the top of the fencing on the platform served by the ladder. Where a ladder rises less than 2.5 m, but is elevated so that it is possible to fall a distance of more than 2 m, a single hoop should be provided in line with the top of the fencing. Where the top of a ladder passes through a fenced hole in a floor, a hoop need not be provided at that point.

Just realised that you may have been making a point about it being covered in the old ACoP. As I don't want to come across as being an unmentionable I shall apologise in advance if that was the case!