CSCS Working at Height Questions
Ladders, scaffolds, harnesses and the hierarchy of control.
Working at Height — practice questions (untimed, instant feedback)
- 7 questions · pass mark 90%
- Untimed practice — you see the correct answer immediately after each question.
- Some questions need more than one answer — these are clearly marked.
All 7 Working at Height questions and answers
These are the same 7 questions as the practice test above, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. When is it acceptable to use a ladder at work?
Answer: For light work of short duration
- A) As long as it is long enough to reach
- B) As long as nobody else needs it for access
- C) For light work of short duration (correct answer)
- D) Ladders are never allowed on site
Why: Ladders are suitable only for light work of short duration.
2. How do you find the safe load rating of a scaffold platform?
Answer: Check the handover certificate or the scaffold signage
- A) Ask the site manager
- B) Ask the telehandler operator
- C) Check the handover certificate or the scaffold signage (correct answer)
- D) You will know it is exceeded when the ledgers start to bow
Why: A scaffold's safe load is stated on its handover certificate and its tag or signage.
3. What matters most when planning work at height?
Answer: Selecting and using the correct equipment
- A) The weather
- B) The height of the structure
- C) Selecting and using the correct equipment (correct answer)
- D) How many workers are involved
Why: Choosing the right access equipment for the task is central to working safely at height.
4. Which of these is NOT suitable for working at height?
Answer: A folding chair
- A) A scaffold
- B) A step ladder
- C) A folding chair (correct answer)
- D) A mobile elevating work platform
Why: A folding chair is not designed for access work and must never be used to gain height.
5. What should you do before any work at height starts?
Answer: Carry out a risk assessment
- A) Secure the work platform
- B) Hold a pre-start briefing
- C) Carry out a risk assessment (correct answer)
- D) Issue safety harnesses
Why: A risk assessment comes first — it identifies the hazards and the controls needed.
6. How often should a ladder be inspected?
Answer: Before each use
- A) Once a year
- B) Once a month
- C) Before each use (correct answer)
- D) Every six months
Why: Check a ladder before every use to confirm it is sound and safe.
7. What is a guardrail on a scaffold for?
Answer: To stop workers falling
- A) To give a handhold
- B) To stop tools falling
- C) To stop workers falling (correct answer)
- D) To help you balance
Why: Guardrails are edge protection that stops people falling from the platform.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
Falls from a height are the most common cause of fatal accidents at work in Great Britain. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 set out how the risk must be managed, and the test expects you to know the order in which controls are chosen. Work at height means any place where, without precautions, you could fall a distance liable to cause injury, including through a fragile roof or into a hole in the ground.
- The avoid, prevent, minimise hierarchy set out in regulation 6 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005
- Choosing the right access equipment, and when a ladder or stepladder is acceptable
- Guard rails, toe boards, platform width and scaffold duty ratings
- Inspection intervals for scaffolds, towers, MEWPs and ladders, and who is competent to inspect
- Fragile surfaces such as roof lights, liner panels, corroded metal sheets and non-reinforced fibre cement
- Stopping tools and materials falling on the people below
- Emergency and rescue planning, including how someone left hanging in a harness is recovered
Key facts worth memorising
- Avoid, prevent, minimise
- Regulation 6 requires employers to avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable to do the job another way, then prevent falls, then minimise the distance and consequences of a fall.
- Guard rail at least 950 mm
- For construction work the top guard rail must be at least 950 mm above the edge, and any unprotected gap between guard rails must not exceed 470 mm.
- Scaffold inspection every 7 days
- A scaffold must be inspected by a competent person after installation and before first use, at intervals of no more than every 7 days after that, and following anything liable to affect its safety such as high winds.
- Ladders: 30 minutes as a guide
- HSE guidance says that if a task needs you to stay on a leaning ladder or stepladder for more than 30 minutes at a time, you should use different equipment.
- Assume a general purpose duty rating
- Unless your scaffold provider tells you otherwise, assume a scaffold is general purpose with a maximum load of 2 kN per square metre (200 kg per square metre).
- 31 fall deaths in 2025/26
- HSE recorded 31 worker deaths from falls from a height in 2025/26, out of 126 worker fatalities in total, making it the single largest cause. These are HSE's provisional figures.
What people get wrong
Ladders are banned on construction sites.
HSE calls this a common misconception. Ladders are legal and are sometimes the most suitable equipment, provided the risk assessment supports it and the ladder can be level, stable and secured.
Short duration on its own justifies using a ladder.
HSE is explicit that short duration is not the deciding factor. You must consider the risk first, and the 30 minute figure is guidance on when to switch equipment, not permission to climb.
A harness makes any work at height safe.
A harness is personal protection and only minimises the consequences of a fall. Collective protection such as a guard rail, which protects everyone without them having to do anything, comes first.
If a scaffold looks sound you can use it.
Check the tag and the inspection record. If it has not been inspected within the last 7 days, or since high winds or an alteration, it should not be used.
Answering these questions in the test
Most working at height questions are really testing the order of the controls, so read every option through that lens. If one answer lets you do the job from the ground, it beats everything else. If you must go up, the option giving collective protection (a guard rail, a fully boarded tower, a MEWP basket) beats one relying on the individual to clip on correctly. Watch for the numbers, because they appear often: check a ladder before every use, inspect a scaffold at least every 7 days, top guard rail at least 950 mm. Any answer involving improvised access, a chair, a stack of pallets, an oil drum or the top step of a stepladder, is always wrong.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated — our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
Topics that come up alongside working at height
Ready for the real thing?
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