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WAH Regulations 2005 come under House of Lords examination

The House of Lords’ Merits Committee is conducting a study to assess the degree to which Government departments check whether legislation is actually working as anticipated. As part of this process the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAH 2005) will be subject to in-depth review and views are requested by 11 September 2009.

The Committee intends to establish if government departments review the assumptions in their Explanatory Memoranda and Impact Assessments to provide better information for the development of future legislation. The inquiry has two main strands:

• National Audit Office is conducting a statistical survey of a significant number of Statutory Instruments from 2005 to see how many have been reviewed and
• a small number of regulations have been selected for more in-depth review, including WAH 2005.

Comment: This study will open up a number of issues ranging from the ‘banning of ladders’ to allegations of government ‘gold plating’ to the original European Directive. Debate over the ‘two metre’ rule may also rise to the surface again. However, with construction fatalities at the lowest number and frequency rate on record the House of Lords Committee should hear some very positive evidence on the effectiveness of WAH 2005.

This article was posted on 4th September 2009 in ALL LATEST NEWS, LAW.
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