Ask the supplier to cite the specific regulation.

Standards may have evolved but they are rarely retrospective for items already installed in a building.

It is fraudulent and unethical to "sell" unecessary items under the guise of legislation.

IMHO the only reason their engineers would refuse access is if they wrote an RA forbidding their engineers using such existing access equipment.

Better still turn the tables make them responsible for supplying their engineers with suitable access and remove the ladder - after all if it is not present there is no chance of it breaching spurious legsislation. Then look for an ethical contractor.

BS5395-3 Figure 3 shows fixed ladder rungs at 20 to 50mm diameter, therefore round.

Edited by user 05 December 2019 23:52:20(UTC)  | Reason: spelling ...

Many fixed ladders do not comply with current standards, so must (to some extent) be considered dangerous.  Whether they are so dangerous that they should not be used or that existing installations should be changed is a different matter.

I haven't checked if these are latest version but both BS4211:2005 'Permanently fixed ladders' and BS EN ISO 14122-4:2004 'Safety of machinery - Permanent means of access to machinery' permit round rungs on fixed ladders, but only if they are at least 20mm diameter, and many older fixed ladders (including those on my own premises) don't satisfy that.

There is much conflicting guidance on whether fall arrest or cages are better or worse on ladders - normally you'd favour collective measures, but some research suggests cages are worse than nothing (they just break your arms and legs on the way down before you hit the bottom, or if you're really unlucky break your arms and legs and leave you tangled half-way and impossible to extract).

Truly vertical ladders are deprecated, and from my experience genuinely are much more tiring to climb than even fractionally inclined ones - you can stand vertical on a ladder at 10 degrees, but you have to hold your weight in with your arms on a perfectly vertical one.  Maybe not such a big deal when you're dealing with eight rungs, when you're climbing the Humber Bridge towers more so.  I don't have a cite for any guidance to that effect to hand, sorry.

BS 5395-3:1985 was withdrawn October 2015

BS 4211:2005 is currently +A1:2008

BS EN ISO 14122-4:2016 is the current version having been +A1:2010

Installing a temporary standard ladder in place of a pre-existing round rung vertical (admittedly externally) we found water collected on the treads and froze rendering the ladder unusable during winter months. Any spilled liquid could similary puddle on flat surface rungs.

As this is access to a mahcine room, then the guys using the ladder will need to take tools & equipment up to the machine room with them.

Also, the work in the machine roon carries the potential to injure, and possibly seriously.  If a vertical ladder is your only access, as the owner of the premises, how do you provide your contractors with safe access and egress to the palce you require them to work.

Having just assessed a load of lift machine rooms against PUWER, I can tell you now, that these ladders are not really suitable means of access.  I felt that it was an extremely dangerous method of accessing the machine room.  Remember that the base of the ladder needs to have climb prevention if it is in  apublic area, and even if not really, also the access to the roof space (which is likely where the machine room is) also needs to be secure.

Whe?  Do you really want to allow trespassers easy access to the lift machine room where by they could cause a potential multiple fattality in the lift in your premises?

The comment from the maintainer is likely to be an LEIA wide opinion.

I agree that they are totally unsuitable, not because they have ruond rungs, but by virtue of what they are.