Roofing accounts for the largest single share of UK construction fatalities every year — the HSE's most recent annual statistics record 35 worker deaths in construction in 2024/25, with falls from height the leading cause. A roofing RAMS is the document a principal contractor and HSE inspector will look at hardest. It has to prove that the hierarchy of controls under the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR) has been followed: avoid working at height where possible, prevent falls where it is not, mitigate consequences where neither is possible.
WAHR 2005 (SI 2005/735) imposes a strict order of preference: collective protection (edge protection, scaffolding, MEWPs) before personal protection (harnesses), and prevention before mitigation. A RAMS that names personal fall arrest as the primary control without first showing why collective protection was not reasonably practicable will be rejected by any competent principal contractor.
The document needs to walk through the decision: was the work avoidable, was scaffold or MEWP access viable, what were the constraints (access, weight, geometry), and only then arrive at harness work — with the rescue plan as a non-optional companion.
ACR(M)001 (the Advisory Committee for Roofwork's classification of roofing materials) and HSG33 (Health and safety in roof work, 5th edition) set out the fragile-roof regime. Asbestos cement sheets, cement-fibre and certain GRP rooflights must be treated as fragile until proven otherwise. The RAMS has to name the survey that established the roof's status, the controls during access (staging boards, safety nets below, harness with twin-tail lanyard), and the work sequence.
The single most common rejection reason for a fragile-roof RAMS is naming the controls without naming the survey — a competent reviewer needs to see the document that established the assumption.
If a worker falls and arrests on a harness, suspension trauma (orthostatic intolerance) begins to develop within minutes and can be fatal within 15–30 minutes. WAHR 2005 reg 4(1)(c) requires a rescue plan that is reasonably likely to succeed. 'Call 999' is not a rescue plan — fire and rescue response times exceed the suspension-trauma window in most of the UK.
A compliant rescue plan names the rescue equipment on site (a controlled descent device, a rescue pulley system, a MEWP positioned and crewed), the person who will deploy it, the rehearsal frequency, and the casualty handling protocol after retrieval (sitting position for 30 minutes to avoid rescue death from reflow shock). HSE Inspector reviews routinely focus on this section.
Roof work is uniquely exposed to weather. The RAMS should name the stop-work threshold — wind speed (HSG33 recommends 23mph mean wind speed as the threshold for handling sheet materials, lower for lightweight cladding panels), surface conditions (frost, ice, wet) and lightning risk. The threshold should be measurable — 'high winds' is not enforceable; '23mph mean over 10 minutes at the working height' is.
The sequence of work matters too. Material handling, fixings, edge-protection removal and final inspection each have their own residual risks that have to be staged. The RAMS should describe how the team transitions between them and what triggers a re-brief.
Each hazard paired with the UK regulation or HSE guidance document that applies.
Falls from leading edge
WAHR 2005 + HSG33
Falls through fragile roof materials
ACR(M)001 + HSG33
Falls from access equipment (scaffolds, ladders, MEWPs)
WAHR 2005 + LOLER 1998
Falling objects struck against operatives below
Construction (Head Protection) Regs / WAHR
Suspension trauma after a harness arrest
WAHR 2005 reg 4(1)(c) + HSE OC392/14
Manual handling of materials at height
MHOR 1992
Adverse weather (wind, ice, lightning)
HSG33 + WAHR 2005
Hot bitumen and hot works on flat roofs
FPA HW01 + RRO 2005
Patterns we see when principal contractors send roofing RAMS back for re-work.
The legal framework a roofing RAMS operates inside — all links point to the official source.
SI 2005/735
The primary law on working at height — defines the hierarchy of controls and the rescue duty.
HSG33 (5th ed)
HSE's primary technical guidance for roof work. Cite this in the RAMS by reference.
ACR(M)001:2019
The industry standard for classifying a roof assembly as fragile or non-fragile.
SI 2015/51
Triggers the duty to produce a RAMS on notifiable construction work.
SI 1998/2307
Applies to MEWPs, hoists and any lifting equipment used to access or work on the roof.
Not as a matter of law. WAHR 2005 requires the most appropriate control, and for short-duration low-risk work on a non-fragile roof with adequate edge protection, MEWPs or even harness systems can be the right answer. The RAMS has to show the decision was made and justified — what was rejected and why. For pitched roofing on residential property, scaffolding remains the default because the alternatives rarely deliver the same level of collective protection.
ACR(M)001 and HSG33 classify a roof assembly as fragile if it cannot reliably support the weight of a person and any load that person may carry. Common fragile materials include asbestos-cement sheets, fibre-cement sheets, all rooflights (until proven otherwise), and certain old metal sheet roofs. A roof is assumed to be fragile until a competent survey says otherwise.
No. HSE has been explicit about this — see Operational Circular OC392/14. Suspension trauma can be fatal within 15–30 minutes; UK fire and rescue response times exceed that window in most areas. A compliant rescue plan names the on-site rescue equipment, the trained person who will deploy it, the rehearsal frequency, and the post-retrieval casualty handling protocol.
HSG33 suggests 23mph mean wind speed as the threshold for handling sheet materials, lower for lightweight cladding panels (which act as sails). For tile or slate work, individual contractors typically set 30mph mean as the stop-work threshold. The RAMS should name a specific, measurable threshold — generic terms like 'high winds' are not enforceable.
When the work changes, when the team changes, after any incident or near-miss, and at a sensible periodic interval. For a long-running project the RAMS should be reviewed at least monthly. For one-off jobs, a fresh RAMS is normally written per job — the conditions vary too much from roof to roof to template safely.
City-specific local context — council, HSE office and local building stock notes — for roofing contractors.
Riskora prompts for the council permits, building stock and access constraints that apply wherever the job is — these are the roofing details principal contractors check first in each city.
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Final RAMS must be reviewed and approved by a competent person before use.