NASC - MAINTAINING HIGH STANDARDS IN SCAFFOLDING - 2023 Safety Report

Since the 1970's, NASC (National Access & Scaffolding Confederation) have been providing official accident and injury statistics regarding their family of over 400 contracting firms, scaffolding suppliers and manufacturers. Within this years NASC Safety Report their members have once again raised the standards within the scaffolding industry, plus this year they achieved the lowest Accident Incident Rates and Accident Frequency Rates in the entirety of NASC history reports (going back to 1975).

The NASC 2023 Safety Report proves that strictly auditing, providing support (guidance notes, user guides, bulletins, technical and h&s advice) to businesses and employees continues to improve annual accident statistics.

The scaffolding industry has seen a huge improvement in health and safety over the last two decades. However, it remains evident that a large portion of the industry continues to accept work standards / levels of risk that fail to meet the minimum legal requirements.

Within the report you can see that NASC have been comparing member companies’ RIDDOR reportable accident statistics with those produced by the HSE for all construction industry accidents since 2005. Within the data you can see that there has been a significant drop in overall injuries within NASC (from 90 in 2021, to 67 in 2022, despite an increase in operatives). Unfortunately, specified injury & over 7 day injury statistics from the rest of the scaffolding industry are not available by the regulatory authority therefore we can not see a direct comparison over the last 10 years. However, if we look at the data compiled via the fatal injury statistics for the Construction Industry, it is not unreasonable to assume that the numbers are significant.

NASCs array of safety documentation highlights many ways in order to keep scaffolding & scaffolders safe. Scaffolding must be inspected to ensure it is safe for use. Good to Go Safety helps employers meet their legal responsibilities through the use of an innovative scaffolding tagging and checklist system. Scaffolding reports must note any defects or matters that could give rise to a risk to health and safety and any corrective actions taken, even when those actions are taken promptly, as this assists with the identification of any recurring problem. These inspections help identify if the scaffolds is designed, erected, altered according to a generally recognised standard configuration, such as NASC Technical Guidance TG20 for tube and fitting scaffolds.

It is the scaffold users / hirers responsibility to ensure that all scaffolding has been inspected as follows:
• Following the scaffoldings installation / before first use
• At an interval of no more than every seven days thereafter
• Following any circumstances liable to jeopardise the safety of the installation e.g. high winds
• All scaffolding inspection must be carried out by a competent person whose combination of knowledge, training and experience is appropriate for the type and complexity of the scaffold. Competence may have been assessed under the CISRS or an individual may have received training in inspecting a specific type of system scaffold from a manufacturer/supplier.

To download NASC's 2023 Safety Report - Click Here.