Fall protection and guardrail inspection
Annual inspection, testing and certification of the systems that stop people falling — and the records that prove it was done.
Fall protection only protects anyone if it still works. An eyebolt installed twelve years ago by a contractor nobody can name. A horizontal line that has arrested a fall and was never taken out of service. A counterweighted guardrail shifted out of position during a roof repair and never put back. None of these announce themselves, and all of them pass a glance from ground level.
The duty was never simply to install the system. It is to keep it in a condition where it will hold, and to be able to show that you checked.
What the law actually requires
Two sets of regulations drive this. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 require that work at height is properly planned and that the equipment used is inspected. PUWER 1998 requires work equipment to be maintained and inspected by a competent person at suitable intervals.
For anchor systems, BS 7883 sets recertification at intervals not exceeding twelve months. For guardrails the interval is driven by use, exposure and risk rather than a fixed figure — and where that is the case we will tell you so rather than quoting a round number to make the quote look tidier.
What we inspect
If it is there to stop a fall, it is in scope:
- •Horizontal safety lines
- •Vertical safety systems, including fixed ladder fall arrest
- •Eyebolts and single-point anchors
- •Isolated posts and anchor points
- •Mansafe and lifeline systems of all types
- •Permanent guardrails and roof edge protection
- •Free-standing and counterweighted guardrail systems
- •Step units and crossover platforms
- •Fixed ladders and access ladders
- •Walkways and demarcation systems
The standards we work to
What a guardrail is actually judged against
Guardrails get assessed against what Schedule 2 of the Work at Height Regulations requires, not against how solid they look. The top guard rail has to sit at least 950 mm above the edge — 910 mm is accepted where it was already fixed before the Regulations came into force — and there must be no unprotected gap of more than 470 mm between the top rail and any intermediate rail.
The dimensions are the easy part. The harder test is whether the system is still of sufficient strength and rigidity for what it is being used for, and still secured so it cannot be displaced. A free-standing system that has been moved and not reinstated fails that test even when every measurement still reads correctly.
What happens on an inspection
- Every asset is located and identified, including the ones not on your register
- Visual and physical inspection against the relevant standard
- Load testing where the system and the standard require it
- Condition recorded, along with anything installed incorrectly or modified since
- Each unit tagged and numbered so it can be tracked year to year
The most common finding on a first inspection is not a failed anchor. It is an asset nobody knew was there, or a system with no installation record at all — which means nobody can say what it was designed to take.
What you receive
- A certificate for each system that passes
- An asset register, with every unit identified, located and numbered
- A photographic record
- A schedule of defects, split into what fails now and what to watch
- The date the next inspection falls due
In year one the certificate feels like the deliverable. By year two it is the register. Without one you pay every year to rediscover your own building, and you have no way of knowing whether an anchor has quietly disappeared.
When something fails
A failed asset is taken out of use and labelled so nobody clips onto it in the meantime. We quote the remedial work, carry it out or coordinate it, then reinspect and recertify, recording the completion against the original finding.
An inspection regime that produces reports and no completions leaves you with a documented list of known defects, which is a worse legal position than never having looked.
The people using the system
A certified anchor point and an untrained user is still an accident. Alongside the fixed systems we can assess personal fall protection equipment — harnesses, lanyards and connectors — and advise on what training the people using them should hold.
Fall protection and guardrail inspection is partner delivered. A specialist accredited partner carries out the inspection, testing and certification; Calcon coordinates, manages and reports it as your single point of contact. Whoever attends site, Calcon remains the accountable party for the scope, the standard and the record.
Where we work
Calcon is based at Challenge House in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, and works across Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and the surrounding counties.
Most owners do not, and the ones who think they do are often working from a list the installer left behind. Tell us the buildings and we will find them, test them and give you the register.
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