Ladder register with QR tags: pre-use checks and detailed inspections

Quick answer. Give every ladder and stepladder its own ID and its own line in the register. Record its type, make and model, where it is kept, its interval for detailed visual inspection, the date and result of the last one, who did it, and its status. The inspection duty comes from regulation 12 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, which requires the result to be recorded and kept until the next inspection. HSE splits ladder checks in two: the user's pre-use check, which does not need recording, and the employer's detailed visual inspection at fixed intervals, which does. A defective ladder is not used, and comes off the register as out of service until it is repaired or destroyed.

Ladders are not banned. HSE says so in as many words: ladders and stepladders can be a sensible and practical option for low-risk, short-duration tasks (HSE, ladders). Schedule 6 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 allows a ladder for work at height where a risk assessment shows more suitable equipment is not justified, because of the low risk and short duration of the task or features of the site that cannot be altered.

What goes wrong is rarely the decision to use a ladder. It is not knowing which ladder was last looked at, by whom, and whether the stepladder in the plant room is the same one that was reported with a cracked stile last month.

Which law sets the inspection duty

People often reach for PUWER here, and partly they are right. Ladders are work equipment, and regulation 5 of PUWER 1998 requires every employer to keep work equipment maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.

The inspection duty is different. PUWER regulation 6, the general inspection duty, does not apply to work equipment covered by regulation 12 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and ladders are covered by it. Regulation 12 requires work equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration that could result in dangerous situations to be inspected:

• at suitable intervals; and
• each time exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise its safety have occurred.

It also requires the result of each inspection to be recorded and kept until the next inspection is recorded, and it defines an inspection as a visual or more rigorous check by a competent person, appropriate for safety purposes.

The regulation does not set a number of months. The interval is yours to set, using the manufacturer's instructions and how hard the ladder is used.

Two levels of check

HSE separates ladder checks into two kinds (HSE, how to check your ladder is safe before you use it; HSE, inspecting the condition of ladders).

The pre-use check. Done by the person using the ladder, at the start of the working day and again after something changes, for example the ladder has been dropped or moved from a dirty area to a clean one. HSE lists what to look at:

• stiles: not bent or damaged;
• feet: not missing, worn or damaged, and touching the ground rather than dirt or stones;
• rungs: not bent, worn, missing or loose;
• locking mechanism: working, with locking bars fully engaged;
• stepladder platform: not split or buckled;
• steps or treads: not contaminated or slippery, and fixings not loose.

If the user finds a defect, HSE's advice is not to use the ladder and to tell the person in charge of the work. HSE says pre-use checks do not need to be recorded.

The detailed visual inspection. HSE says these are the employer's responsibility, can be done on site by a competent employee, should be carried out at fixed intervals in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, and should be recorded. The records give a picture of the state of each ladder over time. Ladders that are part of a scaffold system are inspected every seven days as part of the scaffold inspection.

The register exists for the second kind. It is where the fixed interval lives, and where the result lands.

What to record for each ladder

Keep the interval and its basis on the record. An inspector asking why a ladder is on a 3-month cycle should get an answer from the register, not from the person who set it up.

Tagging ladders

A ladder ID painted on a stile wears off, and a list of "ladders, 6" tells you nothing about which one failed. A label per ladder, carrying its ID and a QR code that opens its record, ties each inspection to the item in front of the inspector.

Some practical points:

• Put the label on the outside face of a stile (or a stepladder's back leg), at a height where hands and feet do not rub it.
• Do not cover the manufacturer's label or any markings the user needs to read.
• Use a label made for the environment: an outdoor or chemical-resistant label for ladders kept in yards and plant rooms.
• Never reuse an ID. When a ladder is scrapped, its ID retires with it, so old records cannot attach to a new ladder.

A defective ladder

HSE's advice to the user who finds a defect is simple: do not use it, and report it. The register then has to make sure the ladder stays out of use:

1. Mark it out of service in the register the same day, with the defect and who found it.
2. Label it on the ladder itself so it is not picked up from the store.
3. Repair it in line with the manufacturer's instructions and re-inspect it, or take it out of service for good and mark it retired.

Setting this up in Hovermarks

Hovermarks is an asset register with inspections built in:

• One asset per ladder, with its own QR label, printed singly or in bulk on A4 sheets or rolls.
• Make, model, serial number and documents on each record, and custom fields for the ladder category (type, rating, interval basis).
• An inspection schedule per ladder with reminders before the detailed inspection falls due, and a checklist built from HSE's list above, run on a phone by scanning the label.
• A failed answer raises a defect against that ladder. Set it to Out of service, and anyone who scans the label without signing in sees its name, site and status, so the next person knows not to use it, and can report a fault from the scan.
• Move a ladder between sites and its history goes with it.

Hovermarks does not check ladders in and out to named people, and it is not a substitute for the competent person or for the user's pre-use check. The asset management page sets out what each record holds.

Sources

Checked on 2 November 2026.

• Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 12 (inspection of work equipment), legislation.gov.uk
• Work at Height Regulations 2005, Schedule 6 (requirements for ladders), legislation.gov.uk
• PUWER 1998, regulation 5 (maintenance) and regulation 6 (inspection), legislation.gov.uk
• HSE, Ladders and stepladders (page updated 5 June 2024)
• HSE, How to check your ladder is safe before you use it (page updated 5 June 2024)
• HSE, Inspecting the condition of ladders (page updated 5 June 2024)

HSE's ladder pages now link to the Ladder Association's brief guide (LA455) for more detail; the HSE leaflet INDG455 is no longer published at its old address.

Related reading

• PUWER inspection checklist
• PUWER Regulation 6 inspection records
• What is an asset register?
• QR code asset tagging: a practical guide