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Obstacles and placing out of reach: basic protection onlyIs 2.5 metres high enough?

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Obstacles: basic protection only

Guidance Note 3 · p.36. Protection against contact with live parts can be provided by an obstacle — and there is a limit to what that buys you.

✋An obstacle provides basic protection only. There is no fault protection. It prevents unintentional contact with live parts, but not deliberate contact — someone who sets out to get round it can.

The examples given: a locked metal gate in front of a switchboard or changeover board, and transformers in a locked cage at high voltage.

The test is simple: does it prevent unintentional bodily approach to, or contact with, live parts?

If somebody can walk into or reach the live parts by accident, the measure has failed — whatever it looks like.

Placing out of reach

2.5 metres minimum
✋Height alone does not make something out of reach. Nothing stops somebody fetching a ladder. The measure only works if access is genuinely controlled — a key, a code, or supervision.

One example: a plant room or switch room: nobody should be in there except a skilled person, or somebody under the supervision of one. And realistically they will not get the key or the code without the building manager asking why.

Common sense plus the standard. If something is accessible to somebody who should not be near it, the measure has failed — whatever the book says about distances.
floor 2.5 m minimum from the floor, or from any surface someone can stand on live parts only works if access is controlled a key, a code, or supervision ⚠ nothing stops a ladder
Height on its own is not a protective measure. If somebody who should not be near it can still get to it, the measure has failed — whatever the tape says.

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