Posted By Dave Dowan I agree with you stance on this although not involved with construct sites we do a lot of work at height. We also prohibit young workers and work experience placemnts from working at hieght. In addition we also prohibit them from various other areas which are considered high risk.

Posted By Robert K Lewis It's a sad reflection on the industry that we cannot rely on sites to maintain proper access and edge protection. I would still like to see such people brought onto site provided you can get a proper Risk Control plan and rely on the management to follow it. Too often we, as an industry, rely on ladders for access and I strongly argue that there is no reason at all why staircases cannot be fitted even to scaffolds. Similarly good control and shadowing will give the required degree of reassurance. Provided that the access and egress, the edge protection and walk surface are managed and assessed by the shadow locally I feel that there is a lot to be gained. I have problems with a standard 2 metres - does this mean that they cannot be anywhere that there is a landing or walkway above ground level as they might fall over the ballustrade. Interestingly the standards for edge protection in the Construction H&S regs are often higher than Building regs and the associated British Standards. Also remember that it is often the finishing trades that have the most accidents. Just a few thoughts anyway Bob