I'd like to get a feel for how other sites manage access/egress using vertical fixed ladders.

Fall arrest equipment, rescue team and permit is used for accessing roofs and high structures.

However, for fixed ladders between 2.5 - 3m , this seems to be a grey area on "how far to go".

These are old-style hooped ladders, mostly used for occasional maintenance access.

Can else with experience of a similar vintage site give me a feel for how you manage these in your setting?

Other than having them on the annual ladder inspection, and with access restricted to authorised users by padlocked blanking plate in external locations, there is no restraint / arrest equipment or permits for climbing.

HSE has just updated their ladder guidance

Safe use of ladders and stepladders: How and when to use a ladder at work - HSE

Does not cover fixed ladders specificaly but does say

"Know how to use a ladder safely

To use a ladder, you must be competent or, if you are being trained, you should be working under the supervision of a competent person.

Competence can be demonstrated through a combination of training, practical and theoretical knowledge, and experience.

Training should be appropriate for the task, and this includes knowing:

• how to assess the risks of using a ladder for a particular task
• when it is right to use a ladder (and when it is not)
• which type of ladder to use and how to use it"

Have to say i have always found the advice on training for ladder use a little vauge but the old 3 points of contact consiatntly comes up. Dont know if any of that helps

The padlocked ladders have their key retained by the engineering management team - they issue it to internal staff subject to internal permit & RA for WAH or external contractors subject to permit & agreed RAMS (typically roof maintenance activity).

The internal ladders are occassional access by plant operators (manual shut-off valves) which lead to a small standing platform c/w hand rails. Being fixed to the wall vertical access there is little in the way of training to demonstrate "competence" so it is included as three line items in the task Tool Box Talk - report any visual defects / Do Not Use, 3 points of contact and do not reach out/over/beyond the platform.

Nerdy, I think one of the reasons that the guidance is "clear as mud" is that some of the research findings are somewhat contrary.

However, I do think each case needs to be considered on merit. I remember climbing 90m up a near vertical ladder with both hoops and an arrest system and I was grateful for both. Providing landings would have been utterly impractical without a major re-engineering of a landmark structure whose aesthetics would have suffered as a result.

Yesterday I was reading about "model byelaws" for buildings in England in the 19th Century - in the days before there were nationally applicable Building Standards regulations. So these were "models" to inform those setting the rules in Boroughs around the land.

One of the big issues was whether the maximum slope of a roof  should be 75 degrees or perhaps 83 degrees.  They eventually settled on 47 degrees (which I guess meant 45 but with a bit of give for old fashioned methods of surveying) on warehouses and 75 for everything else except for steeples. 

Now, if one looks at this in a remote "safety" bubble, either 75 or 83 seems extremely dangerous, but what would our skylines look like if all roofs had reduced slopes? 75 is about the slope on the mansard roofs to front and rear of the 1880 building in which I live.

OSH professionals sometimes tend to come up with overprescriptive solutions, then find that there are reasons why their solutions don't work!