fallarrest.com was shocked to see yet another post on social media presenting false and misleading information that we are seeing far too often, and these types of posts are either born from ignorance, or a simple ‘don’t care’ attitude.

Below (in bold) is the post which was shared on LinkedIn along with the image. It is a very well-known fact in the market by fall protection professionals that only approved MSA Latchways installers are authorised to design, install, test and certify genuine MSA Latchways fall protection systems, yet businesses, contractors, and even manufacturers, whilst being fully aware of these stipulations persist in presenting false information which is misleading, confusing, and shouldn’t be occurring in an industry that’s purpose is to safeguard health, safety, welfare and preserve life.

These actions place end uses in danger and end clients at risk of huge financial burdens and leaves the owner to further exposed risk of potentially finding that their insurances are invalid in the event of any accident, and in any event the certification is worthless.

Some of the statements contained in the post below bring about some concerning questions such as,

Why did the manufacturers trained installer say that they could no longer do so? That’s odd, a fall protection business wouldn’t walk away, what possibly happened is that the business was bought by another who does not hold a licence.

Where the post states that another installer failed the top fix systems due to no technical file, this screams to fallarrest.com that this was an unapproved, untrained contractor who saw an opportunity to upsell another complete system because there are many ways to overcome the absence of a technical file and these businesses and contractors are fully aware of this. This more than likely means that the system was tested and certified by a contractor who is not trained nor authorised to do so, and that is a fact.

As truthful conclusion is that this system was tested and certified by a contractor who is not trained nor authorised to do so, and that is a fact.

The post.

We were recently appointed to review the personal fall protection systems at a shopping centre complex in West London in line with BS 7883, and the systems had been inspected for years by a manufacturer’s trained installer, until recently, when they said they could no longer do so.

Another installer failed the system for top fix systems due to no system technical file and quoted to replace all on a like-for-like basis.

So what has changed? No inspection requirements or manufacturer’s guidance have changed.

The change resulted from the extensive 2019 revision of BS 7883, which included a list of what inspection companies should include in their services. But much of this isn’t new. It’s what should have been happening all along.

At this site, most issues should have been identified during routine inspections, with only minor additions needed.

The roof had blocked gutters and leaks, so these were dealt with as well. This gives the client time to implement reasonably practicable improvements and implement passive controls of guardrail following the work at height regulations hierarchy.

Below: An example of a genuine MSA Latchways MANSAFE constant force post.