No. S 19
Factories Act
(Chapter 104)
Factories (Scaffolds) Regulations 2004
In exercise of the powers conferred by sections 68 and 77 of the Factories Act, Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister of State, Ministry of Education, charged with the responsibility of the Minister for Manpower, hereby makes the following Regulations:
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Citation and commencement
1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Factories (Scaffolds) Regulations 2004 and shall come into operation on 1st May 2004.
Definitions
2.  In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —
“approved scaffold contractor” means any firm or company approved by the Chief Inspector, by a certificate in writing, to carry out the erection, installation, re-positioning, alteration, or dismantling of any scaffold;
“base plate”, in relation to a metal scaffold, means a plate for distributing the load from a standard;
“bay”, in relation to a scaffold, means the portion of the scaffold between vertical supports (whether standards or supports from which that portion is suspended) which are adjacent longitudinally;
“brace” or “bracing” means a member incorporated in a scaffold for stability;
“building under construction” means a building in respect of which building operations are carried on;
“climber” means a lifting equipment through which a suspension wire rope, the lower end of which is not anchored, passes and which is controlled either by friction grips or by turns of the rope around drums within the equipment;
“frame or modular scaffold” means a scaffold manufactured in such a way that the geometry of the scaffold is pre-determined and the relative spacings of the principal members are fixed;
“guard-rail” means a horizontal rail secured to uprights and erected along an open or exposed side of any structure to prevent persons from falling;
“hanging scaffold” means a scaffold suspended by means of lifting gear, ropes, chains or rigid members and not provided with means of raising or lowering by a lifting appliance or similar device;
“independent tied scaffold” means a scaffold, the work platform of which is supported from the base by 2 or more rows of standards and which, apart from the necessary ties, stands completely free of any building, ship or other structure;
“ledger” means a member which spans horizontally and ties a scaffold longitudinally and which acts as a support for putlogs or transoms;
“lift”, in relation to any scaffold, means —
(a)the vertical distance between —
(i)the base of a scaffold and its first ledger; or
(ii)any 2 consecutive ledgers; or
(b)any level at which a platform is constructed;
“outrigger” means a structure which projects beyond the facade of any building, ship or other structure with the inner end being anchored and includes a cantilever or other support;
“professional engineer” means a professional engineer registered under the Professional Engineers Act (Cap. 253);
“putlog” means a horizontal member on which the board, plank or decking of a work platform is laid;
“reveal tie” means the assembly of a tie tube and a fitting used for tightening a tube between 2 opposing surfaces;
“right angle coupler” means a coupler, other than a swivel or putlog coupler, used for connecting tubes at right angles;
“scaffold” means any temporary structure —
(a)on or from which persons perform work in any factory; or
(b)which enables persons to obtain access to or which enables materials to be taken to any place at which such work is performed,
and includes any suspended scaffold, hanging scaffold, tubular scaffold, trestle scaffold, work platform, gangway, run, ladder or step-ladder (other than an independent ladder or step-ladder which does not form part of such a structure) together with any guard-rail, toe-board or other safeguards and all fixings, but does not include a lifting appliance, a lifting machine or a structure used merely to support such an appliance or such a machine or to support other plant or equipment;
“ship” includes any vessel used in navigation, a floating rig, a barge or other platform used in any form of operation at sea;
“shipyard” means any premises in which ships are constructed, reconstructed, repaired, refitted, finished or broken up and includes any dock, wharf, jetty or quay in or at which any ship is berthed;
“sole plate” means a member used to distribute the load from the base plate or the standard of a scaffold to the supporting surface;
“standard” means a member used as a vertical support or column in the construction of a scaffold which transmits a load to the ground or any other solid construction;
“suspended scaffold” means a scaffold suspended by means of ropes or chains and capable of being raised or lowered but does not include a boatswain’s chair or other similar appliance;
“swivel coupler” means a coupler used to connect 2 tubes at any angle other than a right angle;
“tie” means an assembly used to connect a scaffold to a rigid anchorage;
“timber scaffold” means any scaffold which uses a timber roller as any of its member or component;
“toe-board” means a member fastened above a work platform or workplace to prevent persons or materials from falling from the work platform or workplace;
“transom” means a member placed horizontally and used to tie one ledger transversely to another, or one standard to another, in an independent tied scaffold;
“trestle scaffold” means a scaffold in which the supports for the platform are any of the following which are self-supporting:
(a)split heads;
(b)folding step-ladders;
(c)tripods; or
(d)other similar movable contrivances;
“tubular scaffold” means a scaffold constructed from tubes and couplers;
“work platform” means a platform which is used to support persons or materials and includes a working stage.
Application
3.—(1)  These Regulations shall apply to any factory in which any scaffold is erected, installed, used, re-positioned, altered or dismantled.
(2)  The provisions of these Regulations shall be in addition to and not in substitution for or in diminution of the other requirements imposed by the Act.
Obligation under Regulations
4.—(1)  It shall be the duty of every occupier of a factory in which any scaffold is to be erected, installed, used, re-positioned, altered or dismantled to ensure that the scaffold is erected, installed, re-positioned, altered or dismantled —
(a)by an approved scaffold contractor; and
(b)in accordance with these Regulations.
(2)  It shall be the duty of every approved scaffold contractor who erects, installs, re-positions, alters or dismantles any scaffold and every person who engages an approved scaffold contractor to ensure that the requirements of these Regulations relating to the erection, installation, re-positioning, alteration or dismantling of the scaffold are complied with.
(3)  It shall be the duty of every employer, whose employee uses any scaffold or part of a scaffold to perform work, to ensure that the scaffold is used by the employee in accordance with these Regulations.
(4)  It shall be the duty of every person employed or engaged in a factory in connection with the erection, installation, use, re-positioning, alteration or dismantling of any scaffold in the factory —
(a)to ensure that every provision of these Regulations relating to his role in the erection, installation, use, re-positioning, alteration or dismantling of the scaffold is complied with; and
(b)to co-operate with the occupier of the factory and the person who employs or engages him in ensuring that the requirements of these Regulations are complied with.

Made this 5th day of January 2004.

YONG YING-I
Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Manpower,
Singapore.
[OSD C10.41 Vol. 1; AG/LEG/SL/104/2003/1 Vol. 2]
(To be presented to Parliament under sections 68(3) and 77(3) of the Factories Act).