Permit to Work at Height Form: Fields, Steps and Checks

A crew is ready to start, the scaffold is up, and the supervisor is holding a permit that says "Level 3, harness, one week". The form is signed. It doesn't name the edge, the anchor, the rescue method or the point at which work stops. That's the gap a permit to work at height form has to close.

Treat the permit as field evidence, not approval paperwork. Each field should record something a second person can walk to, look at and check before anyone leaves the ground.

Table of Contents

• Thresholds, SWMS Links and Jurisdiction Differences
  • Fall Triggers and What the Permit Must Check, by Jurisdiction
• Required Fields and the Order to Complete Them
  • Required Fields and What Each One Must Prove
  • Complete the Permit in Site Order
• Approval Workflow from Issue to Close-out
  • Seven Stages, Seven Hold Points
• Checking a Roof-Edge Permit Entry
• Common Pitfalls and a Monthly Permit Audit
  • Permit Failures, What They Look Like and the Fix
  • Audit the Last 10 Permits

Thresholds, SWMS Links and Jurisdiction Differences

The trigger sets the controls, so the permit has to name the trigger first. Under the model Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must manage risks associated with a fall from one level to another when the fall is reasonably likely to cause injury, as WorkSafe Queensland guidance on work at heights sets out. The same guidance gives Queensland thresholds of above 3 metres in housing construction, above 2 metres in other construction work, and roof work where the roof slope exceeds 26 degrees.

Administrative controls alone aren't sufficient where a fall could occur. A toolbox talk and a signature don't stop a fall. The permit must point to physical controls that are already in place.

For window cleaning and similar access work, the same logic applies at the training level. Supervisors checking competency records can use what window cleaner safety training covers as a reference for the subjects training should address before a worker is named on the permit.

Fall Triggers and What the Permit Must Check, by Jurisdiction

Confirm the state or territory rule before issue, because variations apply. NSW Regulation 78 in the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 requires work on the ground or on a solid construction where reasonably practicable, so the permit should record why that wasn't possible. In New Zealand, WorkSafe NZ guidance on working safely at height states there's no minimum height threshold, recommends physical barriers or a fall-restraint system for falls greater than 1 metre, and says free-fall distance should be less than 2 metres.

Practical rule: A permit never replaces a SWMS. It confirms the SWMS exists, covers the task and was reviewed before authorisation.

Link the permit to the current document through the SWMS for working at heights so the issuer checks the right revision, not a generic one from a previous job.

Required Fields and the Order to Complete Them

A blank field means nobody checked that item. In Australia, construction work involving a risk that a person could fall more than 2 metres is high-risk construction work and a PCBU must prepare a safe work method statement (SWMS), or ensure one has been prepared, before work starts, as Safe Work Australia's construction guidance on working at heights confirms. That threshold applies to the risk of falling, not to platform height alone, and some jurisdictions use 3 metres.

Required Fields and What Each One Must Prove

Complete the Permit in Site Order

Safe Work Australia's working at heights safety topic states PCBUs must eliminate or minimise height-fall risks and provide safe entry and exit. The permit order should follow that logic, from elimination down to arrest, not the other way round.

1. Define the work: Record the location, task boundaries, duration and responsible PCBU, naming the exact edge, opening or fragile surface. Common slip: building and level only.
2. Identify hazards: Note fragile surfaces, penetrations, falling objects, weather, electrical services and simultaneous work. Walk the access route, not just the work position.
3. Record the hierarchy decision: Ground-level or solid-construction work comes first, with a written reason if it isn't reasonably practicable. Common slip: PPE listed before prevention.
4. Specify engineered controls: Name the barriers, scaffolding or elevating work platform, with a reference another person can find, such as a scaffold tag number or platform ID.
5. Step down only with a reason: Use work-positioning systems only where prevention isn't practicable. Reserve safety nets or catch platforms as the lower-order option.
6. Verify equipment and rescue: A competent person checks equipment, anchor points, access and rescue arrangements, including a named rescue method. Common slip: a rescue plan that relies on emergency services.
7. Confirm the SWMS: Check the current revision covers this task and location and that workers were consulted. Common slip: a SWMS written for another task.
8. Set validity, then sign: The issuer and accepting worker sign after the site walk, with a start and expiry time. Common slip: signing before the site walk.
9. Close out: Complete the inspection, hand back the area and log defects, including damaged anchors or barrier sections removed during the job.

A permit issuer who hasn't seen the edge can't verify the control. The signature follows the walk, never the other way round.

Each field should be completable on site in about five minutes. If a field can't be filled in at the work face, it's asking for the wrong record.

Approval Workflow from Issue to Close-out

A SWMS must identify the high-risk construction work, specify hazards and risks, describe control measures, and explain how controls will be implemented, monitored and reviewed, as Safe Work Australia's SWMS information sheet sets out. One SWMS may cover several high-risk activities, so the permit links approval to the current SWMS revision and gets reissued if that revision changes.

The workflow below shows each stage with its owner and hold point.

Seven Stages, Seven Hold Points

• Pre-start, supervisor: Checks the SWMS revision and books the site walk. Work stops here if the SWMS doesn't cover this task or location.
• Issue, permit issuer: Signs only after mandatory controls, competency evidence, rescue planning and the weather check are complete. Any gap blocks issue.
• Shift start, supervisor: Re-verifies the edge, equipment and conditions. The crew signs on after being briefed on suspension triggers.
• Change control, supervisor: Any change in location, crew, method or conditions suspends the permit and requires reauthorisation.
• Suspension, any worker: Wind, rain, a damaged anchor or a breached exclusion zone stops work immediately.
• Expiry, permit issuer: The permit ends at its stated time. It can't be reused the next day without fresh checks.
• Close-out, permit issuer: Completion inspection, hand-back signature and defect log close the record.

Where site procedure requires a second signature for high-risk work, name that role at the issue stage rather than adding it afterward. Teams running permits in Safety Space can set the issue and close-out hold points in the permit to work workflow, using its permits to work with approvals so a permit can't move forward with mandatory fields empty. Current features should be checked before a procedure relies on them.

Checking a Roof-Edge Permit Entry

Say a crew is repairing a roof edge on a commercial building. The permit entries below show the difference between words that fill a box and words that describe a check.

• Location: "Roof" becomes "north roof edge, section beside the plant room, marked on the attached sketch". The second version sends a checker to one place.
• Hierarchy: "Harness" becomes "ground-level access not practicable because the repair sits at the roof edge; elevating work platform assessed and rejected because the access route is blocked; edge barrier installed before work starts". Homeowners reading about roof edge protection for Columbus homes will recognise the same principle in a residential setting, edge protection first, personal equipment second.
• Rescue: "Call emergency services" becomes "rescue by trained crew member using the anchor-point retrieval kit held at the access point, with retrieval time recorded on the permit".
• Validity: "One week" becomes "shift from start to finish, this task only, no reuse next day".
• Suspension: "Bad weather" becomes "stop if wind or rain makes the edge or access unsafe, as judged by the supervisor, with reissue required".
• Close-out: A blank box becomes "hand-back inspection signed, barrier check logged, defect list attached".

The pattern is the same across every field. The passing entry names something a second person can go and check. The weak entry names a category. Categories don't hold up when a regulator, client or coroner asks what was in place at a specific time.

If a checker can't find it, measure it or see it from the entry alone, the entry isn't finished.

Common Pitfalls and a Monthly Permit Audit

Most permit failures look compliant on paper. The form is complete, the signature is there, and none of it describes the actual edge, the day's conditions or the rescue plan. According to Safe Work Australia's Key WHS Statistics Australia 2025, falls from height killed 24 workers in 2024, representing 13% of all traumatic workplace fatalities, and 29 workers in 2023, a figure 32% above the 2019 to 2023 five-year average of 22, with 45% of those deaths in construction.

Permit Failures, What They Look Like and the Fix

The copied-forward permit is the hardest failure to catch from the desk, because every field is filled in. The giveaway is an entry describing conditions the writer never saw: last shift's weather, access notes that predate new plant on the roof, or a surface condition that no longer holds. Guidance on how to check your roof safely after storms makes the same point for post-storm inspections. A surface that was sound on Monday may be damaged or slippery by Wednesday, and an entry that doesn't reflect that is recycling an old check rather than recording a new one.

A signature is not verification. A verified entry is one a second person could physically confirm that morning.

Audit the Last 10 Permits

Pull the last 10 height permits, including closed and expired ones, and work through the permit to work audit checklist against each one.

1. Specific exposure named: Each permit names a specific edge, opening or fragile surface.
2. SWMS match: The SWMS reference and revision match the task.
3. Hierarchy recorded: The decision is written down, with a reason where ground-level work wasn't practicable.
4. Inspections evidenced: Ladders, scaffolds, platforms, harnesses and anchors have dated, signed inspections.
5. Competency evidenced: Every named worker has training or licence evidence on file.
6. Rescue named: Each permit names a rescue method and equipment.
7. No expired permits active: No permit remains open past its expiry time.
8. Triggers briefed: Suspension triggers were reviewed with the crew at shift start.
9. Close-out complete: Each closed permit has a completion inspection and defect log.

Track 100% completion of critical fields, zero expired permits left active, 100% supervisor verification evidence, and corrective actions closed within a set period. A permit failing three or more checks goes back to the supervisor for reissue, and the failure pattern goes into toolbox talks. Where the same field fails across multiple permits, such as generic locations or missing rescue times, treat it as a form problem and tighten the template rather than blaming individuals. For NZ sites, add the jurisdiction, the barrier or restraint decision and the fall-arrest clearance calculation.

Safety Space holds permits to work with approvals, SWMS with worker sign-on, training registers and equipment registers in one system, so the hold points, expiry times and close-out records described here sit against the site they belong to. Book a free H&S consultation or visit Safety Space to see how the permit workflow handles issue, suspension and close-out for height work.