The Health & Safety Executive has launched a site to give employers advice on what they need to do to safeguard their employees if they are working at height.
See http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-at-height/index.htm
The HSE has also published a guide for people using ladders (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg455.htm) Falls from height account for a significant number of workplace injuries and unnecessary deaths every year and this leaflet gives advice to employers, employees and self-employed people on simple, sensible precautions to take when using ladders and stepladders to work at height.
The HSE also have a further guide (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg401.htm) which describes what employers need to do to protect their employees from falls from height. Falls from height are one of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries. Work at height means work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. Common causes are falls from ladders and through fragile roofs. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 aim to prevent death and injury from a fall from height.