Scaffold inspection and handover in Queensland: what the law actually requires
The short answer
Under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) s225, a scaffold someone could fall more than 4m from must not be used until a competent person gives written confirmation that construction is complete. It must then be inspected before use, after any incident or repair, and at least every 30 days.
If you're mid-handover and want the short version, it's in the box at the top. This page is the long version, with the regulation quoted so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Two things on this page contradict what most Australian scaffolding articles say. The 4-metre threshold is one, and green tags are the other. Both are worth your time, because both change what you actually have to do.
Everything here comes from the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), current as at 29 March 2026, and the Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021. The sources are listed at the bottom with the dates we checked them.
One thing this page is not: legal advice. It's the regulation, quoted, plus how we apply it on site. If you've got a specific job and a specific doubt, ring us and we'll tell you what we'd do.
When do these rules apply?
Section 225 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) applies to a specific list. It covers a suspended scaffold, a cantilevered scaffold, a spur scaffold, a hung scaffold, and any other scaffold from which a person or thing could fall more than 4m.
Read that last one carefully, because it's doing most of the work. Four named scaffold types are always caught, regardless of height. Everything else is caught once the fall distance goes past 4m.
The duties in s225 sit with "the person with management or control of the scaffold at a workplace". On a construction site that's usually the principal contractor, not the scaffolder. Your scaffolder gives you the written confirmation and does the inspections. The legal duty to make sure it happened is yours.
What is a scaffold handover certificate?
There's no document in the regulation called a handover certificate. What the law actually requires is written confirmation, and s225(2) says it plainly:
> The person with management or control of a scaffold at a workplace must ensure that the scaffold is not used unless the person receives written confirmation from a competent person that construction of the scaffold has been completed.
Maximum penalty, 60 penalty units.
Three things follow from that wording. It has to be written, so a verbal all-clear from the crew leaving site doesn't discharge it. It has to come from a competent person. And it has to be received before the scaffold is used, not collected at the end of the job with the invoice.
A handover pack that actually does the job contains the written confirmation itself, the date and the name of the competent person, the scope of what's been handed over where the job is staged, the inspection record, the SWMS, and the licence class of the crew who built it. Ask for all of it on day one.
Does the 4-metre rule mean it isn't a scaffold under 4m?
No, and this is the single most commonly mangled point in Australian scaffolding content. It's worth getting straight because it changes what you have to do.
Schedule 19 of the regulation gives two separate definitions:
> scaffold means a temporary structure specifically erected to support access or working platforms.
> scaffolding work means erecting, altering or dismantling a temporary structure that is or has been erected to support a platform and from which a person or object could fall more than 4m from the platform or the structure.
The 4m threshold sits in the definition of scaffolding work, not in the definition of scaffold. That means the 4m mark is the trigger for needing a licensed scaffolder. It is not the line between a scaffold and not-a-scaffold.
So a 3m scaffold is still a scaffold. Your general duties under the regulation still apply to it. What changes below 4m is that erecting, altering or dismantling it isn't high risk work requiring a scaffolding licence.
Anyone who tells you "it's under 4m so the rules don't apply" has read one definition and not the other.
How often must a scaffold be inspected?
Section 225(3) sets four separate triggers, and the 30-day interval is only one of them:
> The person with management or control of a scaffold at a workplace must ensure that the scaffold and its supporting structure are inspected by a competent person, (a) before the scaffold is used; and (b) before use of the scaffold is resumed after an incident occurs that may reasonably be expected to affect the stability of the scaffold; and (c) before use of the scaffold is resumed after repairs; and (d) at least every 30 days.
Maximum penalty, 60 penalty units.
In practice that means an inspection before anyone gets on it. Another one after anything hits it or shifts it, which includes a vehicle strike, a big wind event or the ground under a standard washing out. Another after any repair. And one at least monthly for as long as it's standing, including through periods when nobody is working.
Then s225(4) closes the loop. If an inspection finds a risk to health or safety, the necessary repairs, alterations and additions must be carried out, and the scaffold and its supporting structure must be inspected again by a competent person before use resumes. A repair does not restart the clock on its own. The re-inspection is what clears it.
Does the law require a green tag?
No. This is the second trap, and it catches almost everyone.
Here is what s225(5) actually says:
> The person with management or control of a scaffold at a workplace must ensure that unauthorised access to the scaffold is prevented while the scaffold is incomplete or unattended. > Example, danger tags and other warning signs.
Maximum penalty, 60 penalty units.
The duty is to prevent unauthorised access to an incomplete or unattended scaffold. Danger tags appear as an *example* of how you might do that. The regulation names no colour, no tag system and no format.
So "the law requires a green tag" is wrong. What's true, and more useful, is this: you have a legal duty to stop people using a scaffold that isn't finished or isn't being watched, and the green and red tag system is how the Australian industry has agreed to meet that duty. It works, everyone on site understands it, and we use it. It just isn't the thing the regulation asks for by name.
The practical difference matters. If your tags are current but the ladder access to an incomplete lift is wide open, you haven't met s225(5). And if you control access some other way that genuinely works, you have.
Who counts as a competent person?
The regulation puts both the written confirmation and the inspections in the hands of a "competent person". In practice that means someone with the training, qualification, knowledge and experience for that specific scaffold, which for most commercial work means a licensed scaffolder holding the right class for what's been built.
Licence class matters here. Basic (SB), Intermediate (SI) and Advanced (SA) cover different work under Schedule 3 of the regulation, and someone holding Basic is not a competent person for a hung or suspended scaffold.
One thing to verify for your own job: the Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021 introduced a table setting out when scaffold design and inspection must be done by an engineer rather than a competent person. If your scaffold is engineered, cantilevered, hung or unusual, check which side of that table you're on before you rely on a competent-person inspection.
How we quote
What to ask for on day one
The written confirmation, before anyone climbs on
Not at the end of the job. s225(2) requires you to have received it before the scaffold is used, so ask for it at handover.
The name and class of the competent person
You want to know who signed it and that their licence class covers what was actually built. Ask to see the card.
The inspection record and the next due date
Put the 30-day date in your own program. If the job stalls, the inspections don't.
The SWMS and the certificate of currency
Not required by s225, but every principal contractor asks for them and you should have them on file before mobilisation.
Clarity on staged handovers
Where a scaffold is handed over floor by floor, get confirmation for each stage. A single certificate for a building that was released in five parts doesn't tell you much.
From the tools
[FOR BEN TO CONFIRM OR REPLACE IN HIS OWN WORDS.] The handover pack is the bit people leave to last and then need in a hurry. What I hand over is the written confirmation that the scaffold's complete, the inspection record with the date and who did it, the licence details for the crew, and the SWMS. Site managers almost always ask for two things on top of that: the certificate of currency, and something they can show if an inspector walks on. What I see go wrong most is the 30 days quietly lapsing on a job that stalled. The scaffold sat there for six weeks over a wet season, nobody was on site, and everyone assumed the clock stopped. It doesn't. If it's standing, it's due.
Sources
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), s225 and Schedule 19 Dictionary, current as at 29 March 2026Checked 16 Aug 2026
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), Schedule 3 Table 3.1 (high risk work licence classes)Checked 16 Aug 2026
- Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021 (Qld), WorkSafe QueenslandChecked 16 Aug 2026
Questions
Common questions
Who signs the scaffold handover?
A competent person, usually the licensed scaffolder who built it, holding a licence class that covers the work. The written confirmation goes to the person with management or control of the scaffold, which on most construction sites is the principal contractor rather than the trade about to use it.
What happens if the scaffold is altered?
Any alteration is scaffolding work in its own right, and it needs the right licence class. Under s225(3)(c) the scaffold must be inspected by a competent person before use resumes after repairs. Practically, treat a modified scaffold as unavailable until it's been re-inspected and re-tagged.
Does the 30 days reset after a repair?
The regulation sets the triggers separately: at least every 30 days under s225(3)(d), and before use resumes after repairs under s225(3)(c). A repair inspection satisfies the repair trigger. The safe practice, and what we do, is to run the 30-day clock from the most recent inspection so there's never a gap you have to argue about.
Do I need a licensed scaffolder under 4 metres?
Not for the licensing trigger. Scaffolding work is defined as erecting, altering or dismantling where a person or object could fall more than 4m, so below that it isn't high risk work requiring a scaffolding licence. It is still a scaffold, and your duties to provide a safe workplace and a structure that's fit for the job don't change.
Does an unoccupied site still need monthly inspections?
Yes. The 30-day duty under s225(3)(d) attaches to the scaffold standing, not to anyone working on it. A job that stalls over a wet season still accrues inspections, and that's the most common way we see a compliant scaffold quietly go non-compliant.