The Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996

Safety on working platforms

5.  A working platform shall—

(a) be of sufficient dimensions to permit the free passage of persons and the safe use of any equipment or materials required to be used and to provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe working area having regard to the work there being carried out; and

(b) without prejudice to paragraph (a), be not less than 600 millimetres wide; and

(c) be so constructed that the surface of the working platform has no gap giving rise to the risk of injury to any person or, where there is a risk of any person below the platform being struck, through which any material or object could fall; and

(d) be so erected and used, and maintained in such condition, as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable—

(i) the risk of slipping or tripping; or

(ii) any person being caught between the working platform and any adjacent structure; and

(e) be provided with such handholds and footholds as are necessary to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person slipping from or falling from the working platform.