Posted By peter gotch
Hi Aine,
Here's posting from 2000, which was a cut and paste from when I was asked to intervene in a dispute between a client and the contractor building their new engineering workshop. [Note that MTTA has changed its name but Google search will get you to mta website.]
Legislative requirements relating to working space
The occupiers of the workshop will have a duty under Regulation 10 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, which are supported by an Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) to ensure that the room has sufficient floor area and unoccupied space for purposes of health, safety and welfare.
The ACOP indicates that the minimum volume of the room should allow for at least 11 cubic metres of space for each person working in the room and equipment etc therein. Any space above 3m height should be ignored for the purpose of the calculation.
This minimum is based on former requirements of the Factories Act 1961 and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963, and reflects the historic situation wherein usually the space taken up by machinery was often a smaller proportion of total area of a room, than is often the case today.
This minimum may often not achieve the requirement that there should be sufficient unoccupied space to enable work to be undertaken safely.
However, the Regulations do not prescribe the minimum unoccupied space that should be provided. This will vary according to the nature of the work, the associated risks, and the precautions against these.
Regulation 15 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 requires adequate working space to prevent injury at electrical equipment on or near which potentially dangerous work is done, but similarly does not prescribe any minimum.
Part M of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 1991 (as amended) requires, inter alia, that ‘reasonable provision shall be made for disabled people to gain access to and to use the building’.
Taking into account the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, it would be prudent to design the Workshop to avoid the need to make subsequent alterations to facilitate work there by disabled persons, including, in particular, any wheelchair users.
It is likely that in some Workshops, the space needed by wheelchair users may exceed that needed for safe use by the able-bodied. However, Home Office Approved Document M does not include guidance on space required at workspaces, concentrating rather on access arrangements.
Guidance relating to working space
Now revoked Regulation 17 of the Electricity (Factories Act) Special Regulations 1908 & 1944. set minimum clearances where work was undertaken near uninsulated, potentially live conductors within switchboards.
The minimum clearances are set out in Appendix 3 to HSE guidance book HS(R)25 ‘Memorandum of guidance on the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989’: (a) 3 feet (910mm) for switchboards with live conductors at voltages of up to 650v (b) 3 feet 6 inches (1050mm) for switchboards with conductors at higher voltages
These clearances were prescribed for very high risk work activities. In general such work would be prohibited under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, so that a lesser clearance would be likely to be deemed to meet the requirements of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, for eg work at a switchboard with any exposed conductors made dead.
The Home Office ‘Guide to Fire Precautions in Existing Places of Work that require a Fire Certificate - Factories, Offices, Shops and Railway Premises’ indicates that any part of a room which forms part of a fire exit should normally be at least 750mm wide ‘unless to be used by fewer than 5 persons’.
In general the workspace around a machine will only form part of the means of escape for one or two people at any time, indicating that the width might not always need to be as much as 750mm.
Further this Home Office guidance recognises situations where such width may not be reasonable eg specifying that any wicket door in eg a roller shutter should be at least 450mm wide and preferably at least 500mm.
Similarly a width of 500mm is recommended for any window exit.
‘The Ergonomics of Workspaces and Machines: A Design Manual’ by T S Clark and E N Corlett (Taylor and Francis 1984) recommends that designers allow space for the largest user(s), making allowances for equipment, tools, storage of components etc.
On the basis of 95% confidence levels relating to typical worker build, Clark and Corlett indicate that the minimum clearance required for a person moving sideways is 330mm, and if moving forwards, 635mm. These figures do not allow for any additional space required for equipment etc, nor to ensure the avoidance of injury arising from dangerous machinery.
Some additional guidance has been produced for the Engineering and Woodworking Industries, including by the Machine Tool Trades Association (MTTA).
The MTTA Code of Practice ‘Safeguarding Woodworking Machines: Part 1: General and Sawing Machines’ indicates that the minimum clearances on each working side of machines should be at least 750mm greater than the length of the longest material worked on the machine.
Also this MTTA Code recommends a minimum clearance around three sides of the blade of a bandsaw of a radius equal to twice the diameter of the saw pulley wheels.
Similarly the MTTA Code of Practice ‘Safeguarding Transfer Machines and other Special-purpose Machine Tools’ recommends a minimum of 800mm free space around each machine, and clear space of at least 500mm where an operator or setter needs access to tools.
This code indicates that a traversing part (or material carried on it) should not approach within 500mm of any fixed structure unless it is securely guarded.
Comments
As can be seen from the above recommended minimum clearances vary dramatically according to circumstances.
The suppliers of the equipment to be used in your Workshop have a duty under Section 6 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) to provide adequate information about any conditions necessary to ensure that when put to reasonably foreseeable use, the machinery will be safe and without risks to health.
In turn the designer of the Workshop have a duty under Section 3 of HSWA to conduct their ‘undertaking’ in such a way as to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment who may be affected thereby, (eg staff employed in the Workshop) are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.
My interpretation of the decision in various cases including R v Associated Octel Co Ltd, is that the design of this Workshop would fall within the designer's ‘undertaking’.
Hence, the designer also has a duty under Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 to make a ‘suitable and sufficient’ assessment or the risks to persons within the operational facility, which arise from their design, and to ‘record any significant factors’ identified in such assessment.
For the designer’s risk assessment to be ‘suitable and sufficient’, I would expect them to take account of any recommendations from machinery suppliers as to necessary clearances, together with consideration of the work which will reasonably foreseeably be done in the Workshop.
The assessment should take account of operational, cleaning and maintenance operations, with consideration of eg frequency and duration of access to areas such electrical panels.
The designer’s design should enable their compliance with Section 3 of HSWA, which in turn will facilitate user compliance with various duties including those in Regulation 10 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and various requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations.
As regards situations adjacent to potentially dangerous plant, materials handling equipment etc, risk assessment should point towards either increasing the space around a machine, or suitable means of preventing injury eg distance guards. In certain cases this might result in persons being restricted to sideways movement, which may be acceptable if access is only required for short duration on an occasional basis.
Finally, my own view is that if there is residual doubt as to the clearances which are appropriate in specific situations, the guidance in the MTTA Codes should be used as the most authoritative available, except that in situations where there is risk of entrapment between fixed and moving parts of machinery, we consider that suitable guarding should be provided unless clearance exceeds 635mm.
Hope this helps.
Regards, Peter