There is no two metre rule, and there never was
Ask on almost any site and you will be told work at height starts at two metres. It does not. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 set no minimum height at all.
What HSE actually asks is whether, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. That is a question about consequence rather than about measurement, and it means a step ladder in a stairwell can be work at height while a low platform over soft ground might not be.
What counts, including the one nobody expects
HSE describes it as working where you could fall from an edge, through an opening or a fragile surface, or from ground level into an opening in a floor or a hole.
The third one is the useful one. Standing on solid ground beside an open inspection chamber, a lift shaft or an unbacked excavation is working at height, because the fall available to you goes downwards from where you are. Nothing about your feet being on the ground changes that.
What does not count
HSE draws the line clearly: work at height does not include a slip or a trip on the level. A fall from height needs a fall from one level to a lower level.
That is not a technicality, because it decides which duties apply. Catching your foot on a trailing lead and going down on the same floor is a genuine injury and an ordinary slips and trips problem. Treating it as a work at height failure sends you to the wrong regulations and the wrong controls.
The order the law puts them in
Regulation 6 sets three steps and they are a hierarchy rather than a menu. You may only move down to the next one when the one above is not reasonably practicable.
- Avoid. Do not work at height at all where the job can be done safely another way. Fitting edge protection to steelwork on the ground and craning it up is the standard example.
- Prevent. Where the work has to happen up there, use a place of work that is already safe, or equipment that stops a fall happening: a flat roof with permanent edge protection, a tower with guard rails, a scaffold.
- Minimise. Where a fall cannot be prevented, reduce the distance and the consequences: nets rigged close underneath, airbags, and only then personal fall arrest.
Which puts harnesses much lower down the list than site practice usually does. A harness does not stop the fall, it catches you afterwards and leaves somebody hanging, which is why anything relying on one needs a rescue plan resourced before the work starts.
America sets a number. Britain does not.
This is the difference that makes advice non-transferable, and it runs in an unusual direction: the American rule is the more precise one and the British rule is the broader one.
OSHA requires fall protection at four feet in general industry and six feet in construction. Those are measurements. You can check them with a tape and know whether the duty has bitten.
Britain gives you no number and asks whether a fall could injure somebody, which is harder to argue about and far harder to design out by staying just under a line. Australia and Canada sit closer to the American pattern, with trigger heights set in state and provincial regulations rather than nationally.
Getting the numbers that do exist
The one place a real calculation is needed is fall arrest, because a harness needs more room beneath the anchor than people assume. The fall clearance calculator works that out, including why clipping low is the fatal version and why a six foot lanyard does not need six feet.
For the work itself, the risk assessment is where the hierarchy above gets applied to your actual job, and the method statement is where the sequence and the rescue arrangements get written down. Where the platform is a scaffold, the scaffold inspection record covers the checks and who may sign them.
Common questions
Is working at height anything above two metres?
No. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 contain no minimum height whatsoever, which is the most widespread misunderstanding on any British site. The test HSE applies is whether, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. Two metres appears nowhere in it. The figure has probably survived because other duties elsewhere do use thresholds and because it sounds like the sort of thing that ought to be true.
Can I be working at height while standing on the ground?
Yes, and it catches people out every time. If you are at ground level beside an unprotected opening, an inspection chamber, a lift shaft or an excavation, you are working at height, because you could fall from where you are to a level below it. The regulations are about the fall being from one level to a lower one, not about how far off the ground your feet currently are.
Does a slip or a trip count as a fall from height?
No, and HSE is explicit about it: work at height does not include a slip or a trip on the level. A fall from height requires a fall from one level to a lower level. That distinction matters because it decides which set of duties applies. Tripping over a cable and landing on the same floor is a real injury and it is an ordinary slips and trips matter, not a work at height one.
What is the hierarchy for work at height?
Three steps in a fixed order under regulation 6, and you may only move to the next one when the one above is not reasonably practicable. Avoid working at height at all where the job can be done safely another way. Prevent falls where you cannot avoid the work, using a place of work that is already safe or equipment such as edge protection. Minimise the distance and consequences of a fall where you cannot prevent it, using nets or airbags. Personal fall arrest sits near the bottom rather than the top.
Does the same rule apply in the United States?
No, and the two systems are built the opposite way round. OSHA sets explicit trigger heights: fall protection is required at four feet in general industry and six feet in construction. Britain sets no number at all and asks instead whether a fall could cause injury. So an American rule is a measurement you can check with a tape and a British one is a judgement about consequence, and advice written for one does not transfer to the other.
Do I need a rescue plan?
If anybody could end up suspended in a harness, yes, and it is the part most often missing from an otherwise decent method statement. Arresting a fall is not the end of the incident: a person hanging in a harness needs recovering quickly, and calling the fire service is a hope rather than a plan. The rescue arrangements have to be worked out and resourced before the work starts, by the people who will be there when it happens.