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Scaffold Inspections: The Seven-Day Rule and Your Rights

Who must inspect a scaffold and how often, what the records must contain, and what to do if your contractor cannot produce them.

Guide Scaffolding Price Estimator Team

Scaffold inspection is not a formality and it is not optional. It is a legal duty under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and the records are yours to ask for.

Who is responsible

The company that erected the scaffold. Not you, not your builder, not the roofer using it. If the scaffolding contractor tries to pass that duty to you, they are wrong.

The inspection must be carried out by a competent person, in practice someone with CISRS training or equivalent, appropriate to the complexity of the structure.

How often

Three triggers:

  1. Before first use, after erection is complete.
  2. Every seven days thereafter, for as long as the scaffold remains in use.
  3. After any event likely to have affected its stability, such as high winds, an impact from a vehicle, a significant alteration, or anything that has visibly moved.

That third trigger matters more than people realise. If a storm passes through mid-project, the scaffold should be inspected before anyone climbs it again, and you are entitled to ask for that.

What the record must contain

A compliant inspection record includes:

  • the name and address of the person the inspection was carried out for
  • the location and description of the scaffold
  • the date and time of the inspection
  • details of anything identified as a risk
  • details of any action taken
  • the name and position of the person carrying out the inspection

Many firms use a scaffold tag fixed at the access point showing the last inspection date. A tag is useful but it is not the record. Ask for the written report if you want it.

What to do if there are no records

Ask once, in writing. A competent firm will produce them the same day.

If they cannot or will not, that is a serious signal. Stop work on the scaffold, and be aware that if a trade is injured using an uninspected structure, the liability picture becomes complicated for everyone involved.

Alterations by other trades

This is the most common real-world failure. A roofer removes a guardrail to get tiles up, or lifts a board to reach a valley, and does not put it back.

Only the scaffolding contractor should alter the scaffold. If a trade needs something moved, the scaffolder comes back and moves it. That visit may be chargeable, and it is worth every penny compared with the alternative.

Make this explicit with every trade using the structure before they start.

What to look for yourself

You are not a competent person, but you can spot the obvious:

  • missing or loose guardrails and toe boards
  • boards that are split, warped or not fully supported
  • base plates sitting on soft ground without sole boards
  • ties that have been removed and not replaced
  • debris or materials left on platforms

If you see any of these, call the scaffolding contractor rather than the trade.

Ask before you book

“Who carries out the seven-day inspections, and will I receive the records?” is a question worth asking at quotation stage. The answer tells you a lot, and the cost of the inspections should already be inside the hire price. Check that it is when you compare quotes.

Next steps

Put your measurements into our scaffolding price estimator for an itemised range you can hold against a written quote.

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