If you're a UK contractor working at height, you're legally required to have a suitable and sufficient working at height risk assessment template UK contractors can rely on — completed and in place before work begins. This guide explains what that means in practice, what your assessment must cover, and where to get a free template you can use straight away.
Why you need a working at height risk assessment
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 place a clear duty on employers and the self-employed to ensure that work at height is properly planned, supervised, and carried out safely. A risk assessment isn't optional — it's a legal requirement under both the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Work at Height Regulations themselves.
More practically, if you're working under a principal contractor, you'll almost certainly be asked to provide a risk assessment as part of your RAMS pack before you're allowed to start. Without it, you don't get on site.
What must a working at height risk assessment include?
A compliant working at height risk assessment needs to cover the following:
Hazard identification. You need to identify every relevant hazard — falls from the working surface, falling objects striking people below, fragile surfaces such as roofing sheets, unstable ground conditions, and any overhead obstructions.
Who is at risk. This means your own workers, other trades on site, and members of the public if applicable. Think about who is physically present in the area, not just who is carrying out the elevated work.
Risk rating. For each hazard, assess the likelihood of harm occurring and the potential severity if it does. Most assessments use a simple matrix — low, medium, or high — based on these two factors combined.
Control measures. This is the most important section. You need to document what steps you're taking to eliminate or reduce each risk. The Work at Height Regulations specify a hierarchy of controls: avoid working at height where possible, use existing safe places of work, provide collective protection (such as edge protection or scaffolding) before relying on personal protective equipment such as harnesses.
Responsible person and review date. Name who is responsible for implementing the controls and specify when the assessment will be reviewed — particularly if the scope of work changes.
Signature and authorisation. The assessment should be signed off by a competent person before work starts.
Common mistakes to avoid
The most common issues we see with working at height risk assessments are:
- Generic, copied assessments that don't reflect the actual site conditions or task
- Missing control measures for specific hazards (e.g. falling objects are identified but no exclusion zone or toe boards are mentioned)
- No review date or responsible person named
- PPE listed as the only control measure, when the regulations require collective protection to be considered first
- The assessment isn't shared with the workers carrying out the task
A principal contractor or HSE inspector will spot these gaps immediately. A site-specific, detailed assessment is always worth the extra 20 minutes it takes to complete properly.
Download a working at height risk assessment template
SafetyPod's Working at Height Risk Assessment template is written by a NEBOSH-qualified UK health and safety professional and covers all the requirements above. It's fully editable in Word format so you can adapt it to your specific site and trade in minutes.
The template includes:
- Hazard identification table covering the most common working at height risks
- Risk rating matrix (likelihood × severity)
- Control measures column with HSE-recommended controls pre-populated
- Responsible person and review date fields
- Signature and authorisation block
- CDM 2015 compliance notes
You may also need a Working at Height Pre-Task Checklist — a quick daily check before work begins that satisfies most principal contractor requirements.
Need a full RAMS pack?
If you need a complete Risk Assessment and Method Statement for working at height — not just the risk assessment — SafetyPod has a ready-to-use RAMS template in the library. It covers both documents in one download, formatted to meet the requirements of most principal contractors and CDM coordinators.
Browse all risk assessment templates →
All SafetyPod templates are written by a NEBOSH-qualified UK health and safety professional and reviewed for compliance with current HSE guidance and CDM 2015.