Health and Safety – Controlling Access?

Published: 2nd June 2008

A recent case has helped to define the scope for liability in personal injury cases.

A worker in the course of his employment at the property of a third party had fallen from a ladder that was too short for its purpose. The third party was not liable for the worker's injury under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, as the level of control that the third party had over the ladder did not extend to ensuring that it was suitable for its use.

Although the third party did have some control over the ladder, it was only to the extent that they could have removed it elsewhere or placed some kind of notice on it, but that was the limit of its control. If the third party had owned the ladder it might have been possible to say that control existed for the purpose of maintaining the ladder in the state in which it needed to be in order to be an "effective" ladder.

However, the ladder could have belonged to other users of the building or have been left by an unknown workman, and in the absence of such a finding it was difficult to say what the purpose of the third party's control was beyond that of ensuring that the ladder did not get in anyone's way. Therefore, the extent of the third party's control, if any did actually exist, did not reach as far as determining the suitability of the ladder.