News Archive

Our Committee Election results were announced at our Annual General Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, 25 October 2017. We have now updated our Key Personnel page

Rope-Sure, the insurance brand established to provide specialist policies to members of IRATA International, has released an updated product along with a revised web site (www.rope-sure.co.uk) and online quote and buy facility to support its customers.

We are delighted to announce that, on 7th August 2017, Jonathan Capper was appointed by the Executive Committee to the esteemed position of IRATA Chairman, until the forthcoming elections in October 2017.

Jonathan has over 30 years’ experience in the work at height industry and has been involved with IRATA since its inception, he is currently the Managing Director of Lyon Equipment Limited. His work on behalf of the association is widespread and includes significant contributions to the development of the ‘IRATA International Code of Practice (ICOP)’, the ‘Rope Access Manager Rope Access Supervisor Scheme’ (RAMRASS) and representation on national and international standards boards.

Jonathan’s new appointment created a vacancy for the Equipment and Standards Committee (ESC) Chairman’s role and we are also delighted to announce that, current Executive Committee and ESC member, Allan Davies was appointed as the ESC Chair.

Allan has over 21 years’ rope access experience both as a Rope Access Technician and Senior Manager, complimented by his mechanical engineering background and is the ‘Group Operational Development and Technical Authority’ at Cape PLC. Allan will hold the position until the forthcoming elections in October 2017

The Executive Committee would like to thank both Jonathan and Allan for their extended commitment to our Association and have every confidence that they will prove to be excellent Committee Chairmen.

Our biennial committee elections will commence Friday 22 September and run until Thursday 12 October.

Our ITEC is fast approaching and we have invited all of our members to nominate their candidates for our annual awards

If you have not seen our Edge Management Video please take a moment to now!

Independent and objective assessment of candidates, who have completed an IRATA rope access training course, is a fundamental part of the IRATA certification scheme. It is important that we set high standards when recruiting and training new Assessors to ensure that candidate’s rope access skills and knowledge are examined appropriately. ASTACS was designed to set out the criteria and skill sets required to be an IRATA Assessor and is open to all who meet that criteria.

As an expanding International organization, selection and training is regionalized and based on need analysis (number of assessments/number of locally based assessors). Those regions that have the highest ratio of assessments relative to Assessors are prioritized.

Annex O – ‘Protecting rope access technicians against environmental conditions’ has been updated.

The text affected by this update can be viewed within the Annex O ‘contents page’.

We trust that our members will find this latest version of the ICOP to be of assistance whilst planning a safe system of work for all technicians working within difficult environmental conditions as part of their rope access operations.

Annex O can be found within the ICOP which is available to download here.

Our first, IRATA SEA and Far East RAC Meeting and Technical Workshop for 2017 was held in Tianjin, China, which was kindly hosted by our local member, Shenzhen Fairness, who form part of the Fairness Group.

This was new ground for our local RAC with it being the first time we have managed to have such an event in mainland China and with an unprecedented success and an overwhelming attendance of over 100 attendees.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural London Work at Height Seminar, this year’s event took place on 10th July, and was once again held in the prestigious venue of London’s Guildhall building. As working at height continues to be a key part of the construction industry, making the workplace a safer place was and, continues to be, the overarching theme of the London Work At Height Seminar.

On the morning of Friday 30th June, we received the devastating news that our Chairman, Graham Burnett, sadly passed away on Thursday 29th June. In order to allow Graham’s family time to share this tragic news, as they deemed appropriate, we delayed making this announcement until now.

As of 1st July 2017, the Replacement Document Request Form became interactive and can now be submitted through our website. This makes it easier and more convenient for Technicians to order lost or damaged documents.

As well as helping to run the global organisation that is IRATA, and speaking on behalf of rope access throughout the world, many of our representatives are also involved in important national and international standards committees; contributing on the behalf of rope access for the good of us all.

In the UK, we are represented on the British Standards Institution’s (BSI) Technical Committee, PH/5, ‘Personal fall protection’. This committee is responsible for personal fall protection equipment standards and codes of practice and, in the past, has contributed to and published important rope access documents, e.g. BS 7985, ‘Code of practice for the use of rope access methods for industrial purposes’. PH/5 is currently writing the much anticipated BS 8610, ‘Personal fall protection equipment - Anchor systems - Specification’, which IRATA members have recently been invited to comment on.

IRATA are committed to evaluating the industrial rope access profession. This includes continually reviewing and enhancing our syllabus and assessments and the support we offer members and technicians. A course specifically designed to provide technicians and rope access managers with effective rope access specific supervisory and management skills is planned to be launched in 2018. Here we provide some insight into our Rope Access Manager/Rope Access Safety Supervisor course (aka RAMRASS).

RAMRASS

When work is to be carried out at height, good management and supervision are essential to ensure a safe system of work. Rope access worksites, therefore, should be properly managed and supervised to ensure the safety and health of those involved in the rope access project.

IRATA’s Health, Safety & Technical Advisor, David Thomas, was delighted to be invited to give a presentation at the DROPS Forum on 27th April held in Aberdeen. Following David’s presentation, Drops representative, Greg Reid, stated:

“Our Steering Committee and Management Team agree that IRATA membership and support for DROPS would bring added benefit and provide opportunities for us to work together in the continuous review and alignment of our best practice recommendations. As our organisations are both established globally, we anticipate many more opportunities for IRATA representatives to share lessons learned in the pursuit of improvements in dropped object prevention performance. It would be our pleasure to share the elements of our Best Practice Recommendations with regard to Training and Awareness and trust you may find relevant information and resources that may be suitable for your candidates”

The IRATA Executive Committee will meet in June 2017, and will discuss opportunities for collaboration with the Drops organisation.

​ISO/IEC 17024 provides a global benchmark for personnel certification programmes to ensure that they operate in a consistent, comparable and reliable manner worldwide, thereby allowing individuals to have skills that translate across national lines.

Following on from the success of the Edge Management poster (as found here: provide hyperlink to poster) the team at IRATA have been busy creating a safety awareness video aimed at furthering the safety critical knowledge of edge management in rope access.

The objective of this short film is to educate rope access workers to the dangers to their ropes found on-site and the care needed from all workers to safely manage such hazards. The hierarchy of: remove, avoid, protect (RAP) as found in Annex P of the ICOP (hyperlink ICOP download page) is outlined, together with the importance of all technicians working together as a team.

This film is in its final stages of development having been shown at recent RAC meetings, and shall be released shortly with the aim of it being used as part of a safety meeting or toolbox talk. The film contains a set of questions for discussion in the meeting, and is intended to be an interactive learning experience for all attendees.

Our 2017 ITEC will take place between 23 and 25 October 2017, in Cape Town, South Africa. We are currently finalising the programme of events and will provide full details as soon all details are confirmed.

​IRATA International (IRATA) are pleased to announce that our new Assessor Selection, Training & Certification Scheme document, has now received approval from the IRATA Executive Committee.

IRATA appoints Assessors to provide independent and objective assessment of candidates who have completed an IRATA rope access training course. The competence of persons engaged in industrial rope access activities is a fundamental component of IRATA’s rope access system. It is paramount that the Association uses its best endeavours to maintain high standards and therefore, selects the most competent individuals for the role of Assessor.

The IRATA Edge management poster is an excellent reference tool for Technicians when considering rope protection and edge management methods.

Technicians should always ensure precautions are taken to prevent damage to anchor lines when they are in use. Hazards such as sharp edges, abrasive surfaces, corrosive substances and heat sources are common in the workplace and may damage ropes which may come into contact with them or close proximity.

Our ITEC 2016 was held in the Bavarian Capital – Munich City, Germany. Over the course of the event, we hosted our Committee meetings, Technical day in the picturesque mountain town Bad Tölz, product demonstrations, and closed the event with our Annual General Meeting and Dinner.

IRATA Auditors were put through their paces during their audit software training course at our 2016 ITEC held in Munich, Germany. The new audit software is to due be introduced early 2017 in order improve Member audit processes and to provide analytical benefits for IRATA Head Office.

Auditors will soon be recording and completing their audits on mobile devices and it is expected that the switch to digital data recording will provide many key benefits including:
IRATA Quality Manger, Dr Sheila Kondaveeti, was particularly complimentary of the new system, stating that she was “delighted with the commitment shown by the Audit team and that the full implementation of the software will be a fundamental step change towards improving the IRATA audit process”.

The latest revision of Annex O has now been completed and is available for download, this annex covers protecting rope access technicians against environmental conditions.

Annex O is intended for rope access managers, rope access safety supervisors and rope access technicians who may be called upon to plan and carry out work in any or all of the environmental conditions covered by this document.

We are delighted to confirm the formation of our Mediterranean and Scandinavian RACs, consisting of our members in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We take this opportunity to wish the Chairs, namely Fernando Pinheiro (Mediterranean) and Nigel Craig (Scandinavia) every success with their efforts to further the growth and sustainability of the IRATA system, within their regions.

The examination to take trainee Instructor to full Instructor status, has been extended from 45 minutes to 4 hours – the exam will remain a multiple choice, closed book test.

Our ITEC 2015 was held in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. Over the course of the event our committees presented their work undertaken over the past year and their plans for the year ahead.

We have now installed a Technician Search feature onto our website.

Our ITEC 2014 was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over the course of the event our committees presented their work undertaken over the past year and their plans for the year ahead. Meetings were held at the Windsor Guanabara conference centre and our Technical Day at the Cidade Do Samba. The event was closed with our AGM and Annual Dinner.