PART I | Citation and commencement |
| 1. These Regulations may be cited as the Workplace Safety and Health (Work at Heights) Regulations 2013 and shall come into operation on 1st May 2013. |
2. In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —| “anchorage” means a place, a fixing or a fixture to which an anchorage line or lanyard is connected; |
| “anchorage line” means any flexible or rigid line connected at least at one end to a secure anchorage to provide a means of support or restraint for a person wearing a full-body harness or restraint belt in combination with other devices, and includes a life line; |
| “competent person” means a person who has sufficient experience and training to perform the work required to be carried out, and has passed such courses as the Commissioner may require for that work; |
“fall arrest system” means a system —| (a) | designed to prevent or reduce the severity of injury to a person in the event of a fall; and | | (b) | consisting of equipment or material or a combination thereof, such as (but not limited to) —| (i) | a safety net; | | (ii) | a full-body harness; | | (iii) | an energy absorbing device; | | (iv) | a lanyard; or | | (v) | an anchorage line and an anchorage, |
| but does not include a restraint belt; |
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| “fall prevention plan” means a documented site-specific plan prepared for the purpose of eliminating or reducing the risk of falls by ensuring that all reasonable fall prevention measures and methods have been implemented, prior to the commencement of work; |
| “fixed ladder” means a ladder that cannot be readily moved or carried because it is an integral part of a building or structure; |
| “fragile surface” means a surface which would be liable to fail if any reasonably foreseeable loading were to be applied to it; |
| “guard-rail” means a horizontal rail secured to uprights or structures and erected along an open or exposed side of any structure to prevent persons from falling; |
“hazardous work at height” means work —| (a) | in or on an elevated workplace from which a person could fall; | | (b) | in the vicinity of an opening through which a person could fall; | | (c) | in the vicinity of an edge over which a person could fall; | | (d) | on a surface through which a person could fall; or | | (e) | in any other place (whether above or below ground) from which a person could fall, |
| a distance of more than 3 metres; |
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“industrial rope access system” means a system designed for the purpose of performing work on a building or structure by a person and consists of —| (a) | equipment that enables a person to manually raise or lower himself in a harness supported by one or more ropes; and | | (b) | equipment used to anchor the ropes; |
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| “professional engineer” means a person registered as a professional engineer and who has in force a practising certificate issued under the Professional Engineers Act (Cap. 253); |
“responsible person”, in relation to a person who carries out or is to carry out any work at height, means —| (a) | his employer; or | | (b) | the principal under whose direction he carries out or is to carry out any such work; |
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| “safety line”, in relation to an industrial rope access system, means an anchorage line provided and used to protect a person against fall if the working line fails; |
“scaffold” means any temporary structure —| (a) | on or from which any person performs work in any workplace; or | | (b) | which enables any person to obtain access to or which enables any material to be taken to any place at which such work is performed, |
| and includes any suspended scaffold, hanging scaffold, tubular scaffold, trestle scaffold, gangway, run and toe-boards, 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; |
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| “shipyard” means any yard (including any dock, wharf, jetty, quay and the precincts thereof) where the construction, reconstruction, repair, refitting, finishing or breaking up of ships is carried out, and includes the waters adjacent to any such yard where the construction, reconstruction, repair, refitting, finishing or breaking up of ships is carried out by or on behalf of the occupier of that yard; |
| “travel restraint system” means a system consisting of a full-body harness or restraint belt, attached to one or more lanyards, each of which is attached to an anchorage line or anchorage point, designed to restrict the travelling range of a person wearing the full-body harness or restraint belt so that the person cannot get into a position where the person could fall off an edge of a surface or through a surface; |
“work at height” means work —| (a) | in or on an elevated workplace from which a person could fall; | | (b) | in the vicinity of an opening through which a person could fall; | | (c) | in the vicinity of an edge over which a person could fall; | | (d) | on a surface through which a person could fall; or | | (e) | in any other place (whether above or below ground) from which a person could fall, |
| from one level to another and it is reasonably likely that the person or any other person would be injured due to the distance of the fall; |
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| “working line”, in relation to an industrial rope access system, means an anchorage line used primarily for work positioning including descending and ascending; |
| “work platform” means a platform which is used to support any person or materials; |
| “worksite” means any premises where any building operation or works of engineering construction is or are being carried out, whether or not by or on behalf of the Government or a statutory body, and includes any line or siding (not forming part of a railway) which is used in connection with the building operation or works of engineering construction. |
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3.—(1) During the period between 1st May 2013 and 30th April 2014 (both dates inclusive), these Regulations shall apply only to every workplace which is a factory.| (2) From 1st May 2014, these Regulations shall apply to every workplace, whether or not a factory. |
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