Fall arrest
Also called Fall arrest system, Personal fall arrest
Fall arrest means stopping a fall safely once it has already started, as distinct from preventing it. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 make the distinction structural: a work restraint system is designed so that, used correctly, the user cannot get into a position where a fall can occur, while a fall arrest system must incorporate a suitable means of absorbing energy and limiting the forces applied to the user’s body.
The UK position
A harness is not a fall arrest system; it is one component of one, and the components that are not the harness are where the arrangement usually fails. Schedule 5 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 sets requirements for all personal fall protection systems: the system may be used only where a risk assessment has demonstrated that the work can so far as is reasonably practicable be performed safely while using it and that the use of other, safer work equipment is not reasonably practicable, and only where the user and a sufficient number of available persons have received adequate training specific to the operations envisaged, including rescue procedures. Part 4 of that Schedule adds the two requirements specific to arresting a fall. The system has to incorporate a suitable means of absorbing energy and limiting the forces applied to the user’s body. And it must not be used in a manner which involves the risk of a line being cut, or where its safe use requires a clear zone, allowing for any pendulum effect, which is not afforded. That clear zone is the requirement most often breached in practice, because it is set by where the anchor is rather than by what was bought, and no supplier can sell it to you.
Cited by number and title:
- The Work at Height Regulations 2005, Schedule 5 — Requirements for personal fall protection systems
- The Work at Height Regulations 2005, Schedule 5 Part 4 — Additional requirements for fall arrest systems
Where it matters on site
The ranking matters more than the vocabulary. Regulation 7 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 requires collective protection measures to be given priority over personal protection measures, so a net rigged beneath the work outranks a harness issued to the person doing it, and "we issue harnesses" is not an answer to "what is your fall protection". Where a harness genuinely is the right answer, the rescue half is the half that goes missing: Schedule 5 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 requires the training to include rescue procedures, which means somebody has decided in advance how a suspended person is reached and brought down, with what equipment, by whom, and how long that takes. A system that arrests a fall and leaves the person hanging has done half its job. Our CPD-accredited seminar on innovations in construction health and safety covers fall protection systems and working at height, and is written for health and safety professionals and main contractors.