Pre-ticked for falls, plant, electrical and traffic, with three rows written. The category scaffolders leave off is the one most likely to kill them, and it is overhead power.
Overhead power is the one that catches this trade
A scaffold tube being lifted vertically near an overhead line is the classic fatality in scaffolding, and it does not require contact. Electricity arcs across an air gap at distances that surprise people, and the person on the ground holding the other end of the tube dies as readily as the person lifting it.
The clearance distance comes from the network operator rather than from a rule of thumb, because it depends on the voltage. Inside that distance the line gets isolated or diverted, or physical goal posts and barriers go in to the operator specification. Nothing gets carried upright inside the zone, ever, including by somebody just moving one tube.
The gap between the platform existing and the rail existing
Erecting a scaffold means somebody is working at the top lift before the guardrail for that lift is in place, which is a fall risk built into the method rather than an accident. An advance guardrail system closes that gap by putting the rail up from the lift below, and it is the control that removes the exposure rather than catching the consequence.
Where it is not reasonably practicable, harness and lanyard to a designed anchor is the fallback, and it brings its own obligation: a rescue plan. Somebody hanging in a harness has minutes rather than hours, and a plan that consists of calling for help is not a plan.
Ties are a pattern, not a quantity
A scaffold stands up because of where the ties are, not how many there are. They go in to the design pattern as the lift goes up, and the temptation is to fit them afterwards when the boarding is easier to work from, which means the structure spends a shift standing on fewer ties than it was designed for.
The other half is that somebody else removes them. Ties come out for a window, a render coat or a delivery, and they come out by whoever needed the space rather than by a scaffolder. That is what the tag and the alteration rule are actually for.
An incomplete scaffold has to be physically unusable
A tag saying incomplete is a message to somebody who reads tags. Blocking the ladder access is a message to everybody. At the end of a shift with the scaffold part erected, the second one is the control and the first one is the record.
Handover in writing to the principal contractor matters for the same reason: it converts a verbal it is fine now into a document with a date on it, which is what everybody needs when a board goes missing three weeks later.
Loading out is where a scaffold gets overloaded
A scaffold is designed to a load class, and the class assumes materials are spread across the platform rather than stacked in one bay. A pallet of blocks landed in a single bay by a telehandler can exceed the design load of that bay while the scaffold as a whole is nowhere near its total.
That is a conversation with the trade doing the loading rather than a control the scaffolder can apply alone, which is why the load class belongs on the tag where the person with the telehandler can read it. It is also why a scaffold that has been loaded out gets re-inspected: the ties and the standards have had a day they were not designed for.
Common questions
Does erecting a scaffold always need a SWMS?
Where there is a risk of falling more than 2 metres, which is essentially all of it above the first lift. It also commonly triggers the electrical limb through proximity to overhead services and the traffic corridor limb where the scaffold is on a street frontage.
What clearance do I need from an overhead line?
Ask the network operator, because it depends on the voltage and the jurisdiction, and get the answer in writing before anything is unloaded. Working to a remembered figure is how this goes wrong: the distances for low voltage distribution and for transmission lines are not close to each other.
How often does a scaffold have to be inspected?
Before first use, then at intervals not exceeding thirty days, and after any alteration, repair or event likely to affect its stability, including adverse weather. Each inspection is recorded. The thirty days is a maximum rather than a schedule; the alteration and weather triggers are the ones that actually fire.
Who is responsible once the scaffold is handed over?
The user is responsible for using it as handed over and for not altering it. You remain responsible for the structure being what the design says. That boundary is why the handover is written and why alterations are only by a competent scaffolder, and it is the single most argued point on any site.
Can another trade move a board or a tie?
No, and saying so plainly in the statement is worth more than it sounds, because it will happen anyway and the written position is what decides the conversation afterwards. Anything that needs the scaffold changed goes back to a scaffolder, and the tag records that it was.