19 November 2024
The Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSI), in association with the Jersey Association of Scaffold Contractors (JASC), will be undertaking a targeted initiative to consider the training of all operatives involved in the erection, alteration and dismantling of scaffolding.
Legal requirements
Article 3 of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law, 1989 places a duty on the employer to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees whilst they are at work. This general duty extends to the provision of systems of work that are, so far as reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health.
Article 5 of the law places a duty on employers to conduct their undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons other than their employees, such as sub-contractors, are not exposed to risk to their health or safety.
Regulation 27 of the Management in Construction (Jersey) Regulations, 2016 requires the relevant contractor to ensure that, if work at height is carried out, suitable and sufficient measures are taken to prevent any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.
Competence and supervision of scaffolding operatives
All scaffolding must be erected, significantly altered and dismantled under the supervision of a competent person.
All scaffolding operatives must be competent for the type of scaffolding work they are undertaking and should have received the appropriate training, including refresher training, relevant to the type and complexity of the scaffolding they are working on.
The training must specifically address:
- how to interpret, understand and follow the scaffolding plan
- the safe assembly, dismantling or alteration of the scaffolding
- the precautions required to prevent the risk of persons, materials or objects falling
- the potential effects of adverse weather on the scaffolding and its safety permissible loadings
- any other specific risks that assembly, dismantling or alteration of the scaffolding may entail
The minimum standard of training required to demonstrate general competence is that required by the Construction Industry Scaffolders’ Records Scheme (CISRS) or equivalent.
The HSI will be visiting scaffolds in the forthcoming months to check training records against operatives carrying out the work. Enforcement action will be taken if operatives are carrying out tasks they are not trained to carry out. An article will be published at the conclusion of the initiative setting out the findings.
Useful links
Further guidance can be found in the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) safety guidance below or by following similar guidance provided by the manufacturers of system scaffolding.
NASC SG4:15 Preventing falls in scaffolding operations
You can find guidance on the relevant expertise of scaffolding labourers, trainee scaffolders, scaffolders and advanced scaffolders including details of which structures they are deemed competent to erect on Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS).
It should be noted that the HSI is unable to recommend any specific training providers but a list of NASC members can be found on NASC.
Guidance on the Construction Regulations can be found on Management in Construction (Jersey) Regulations, 2016.
Jersey Association of Scaffold Contractors (JASC)
gov.je