The short version
Two ACT bodies matter. Access Canberra, through its Construction and Workplace Licensing team, issues high risk work licences. WorkSafe ACT enforces work health and safety, including the rules for scaffolds and the people who build them. The licence classes for scaffolding are Basic scaffolding (SB), Intermediate scaffolding (SI) and Advanced scaffolding (SA). The line that decides whether a licence is needed is 4 metres: erecting, altering or dismantling a scaffold from which a person or object could fall more than 4 metres needs one. This page is the regulator reference. For the plain-language version aimed at an owner or builder, read do scaffolders need a licence in the ACT.
Who does what
Access Canberra's high risk work licences page says that anyone who plans to do work that is a class of high risk work must hold a high risk work licence. It lists the scaffolding classes by their exact names and gives its contacts: cwpl@act.gov.au for Construction and Workplace Licensing, 02 6207 8096 if a renewed licence has not arrived within 21 business days, and 13 22 81 for help with online renewal or replacement. Licences can also be dealt with in person at an Access Canberra Service Centre.
WorkSafe ACT's high risk licensing page confirms there are 29 classes of high risk work in 5 categories, scaffolding being one of the categories, and refers licensing to Access Canberra. WorkSafe ACT itself is the work health and safety regulator under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and its regulation. Its general address is worksafe@act.gov.au and its number is 13 22 81. In practice, a question about whether a person holds a licence goes to Access Canberra, and a question about whether a scaffold is safe, inspected or used correctly goes to WorkSafe ACT.
One thing the ACT construction licences page does not show is a separate scaffolding trade licence. The ACT's construction licences page lists builders, electricians, plumbers, drainers, gasfitters, building surveyors and others, and does not mention scaffolding. As far as that page shows, scaffolding is regulated through high risk work licences.
The three classes
The Access Canberra page lists the class names but not what each one allows. The scopes below come from the New South Wales regulator, whose scaffolding licences page uses the same national class codes, and a matching page from another state regulator which also says intermediate requires basic and advanced requires both. They are shown as those regulators describe them, because no ACT page lists scopes.
| Class | Name | Scope as other regulators describe it |
|---|---|---|
| SB | Basic scaffolding | Modular or prefabricated scaffolds, cantilevered materials hoists up to 500 kg and bracket scaffolds. |
| SI | Intermediate scaffolding | Everything in basic, plus tube and coupler scaffolds including covered ways and gantries, cantilevered and spurred scaffolds, perimeter safety screens and shutters, and mast climbers. |
| SA | Advanced scaffolding | Everything in basic and intermediate, plus cantilevered hoists, hung scaffolds and suspended scaffolds. |
WorkSafe ACT's own scaffolding page adds one specific: an advanced scaffolding licence holder may install and dismantle suspended scaffolds. For which class a given job needs, the scaffolder decides, and the Safe Work Australia scaffolding page is the national reference. The types of scaffolding guide explains the kinds of scaffold behind those names.
The 4 metre rule
WorkSafe ACT's scaffolding safety alert, dated 20 February 2017, says scaffolding over 4 metres may be erected, altered or dismantled only by a licensed, competent person, and that a high risk work licence is needed for scaffolding activity. Its April 2023 alert, issued after a 4.2 metre fall from a second storey on a residential site, repeats the wording. The WorkSafe ACT scaffolding page says scaffolding over 4 metres high must be erected, altered and dismantled by a competent and appropriately licensed person.
The definition behind the number comes from the model work health and safety regulation as published in the Commonwealth compilation, because the ACT regulation text itself could not be read for this page. Scaffolding work means erecting, altering or dismantling a temporary structure from which a person or object could fall more than 4 metres from the platform or the structure. Safe Work Australia puts it the same way: scaffolding work involving a platform with a fall over 4 metres requires a high risk work licence, and there are three classes.
Under 4 metres a licence is generally not required. Safe Work Australia's guide gives a small frame scaffold used to repair eaves or paint a ceiling as an example. Its tower and mobile scaffold sheet adds that a scaffold under 4 metres can still need a licensed scaffolder where another fall hazard exists, such as beside an excavation. The practical test is the fall from the platform or the structure, not the number of storeys in the house, and the scaffolder decides from the site. Trestle scaffolds, in the same guide, generally do not need a licensed scaffolder.
Who is exempt
Access Canberra lists exemptions to the licence requirement, including trainees working under the supervision of a licensed person and applicants who are awaiting a decision on their application. That is the main reason the sensible question is not whether the person on the ground has a card but who is licensed and supervising the erection. If the scaffold is above 4 metres, ask who the licensed person is and whether they are on site while it goes up.
Duties that sit beside the licence
A licence is only one part of the picture. WorkSafe ACT says the Work Health and Safety Act gives duties to designers, scaffolding contractors and workers carrying out scaffolding work, and to principal contractors for a construction project where the cost is $250,000 or more. Working decks need guardrails, mid-rails and toe boards. People need instruction, training and supervision during erection, use and dismantling. Trades working on or near a scaffold need a safe work method statement. An incomplete scaffold must be signed to say it is not to be used, and a mobile scaffold must have its wheels locked when stationary and nobody on it when it is moved.
Falls from height, even without injury, are notifiable incidents reported to WorkSafe ACT immediately: 13 22 81 in business hours and 0419 120 028 after hours, per the 2023 alert. Scaffolding must also meet AS 1576, the Australian Standard series for scaffolding. For inspection, WorkSafe ACT says to inspect before first use, after events such as a severe storm, after repairs and at intervals not exceeding 30 days, by a competent person. The inspections and handover certificates guide covers what you should see on site.
The 2017 audit, as history
In 2017 WorkSafe ACT audited 26 scaffolding sites between March and May. The Government's media release and press coverage reported compliance ranging from 58 per cent to 89 per cent depending on what was measured, with three Prohibition Notices and three Improvement Notices, all at residential sites. Only one of five commercial scaffolds met the requirement for access openings. Problems included fall protection at entry and exit points, ladders and stairs, and missing sole plates. A joint ministerial release in October 2017 declared zero tolerance and said only one in five scaffolds checked had been fully compliant.
That is 2017. It is useful because it shows what inspectors looked at, and it is not a current statistic about ACT scaffolding. WorkSafe ACT's later alerts, in 2023 and on its stay safe page, list problems such as no scaffold tag in place and a tag not inspected within 30 days, which is a reasonable checklist for a home owner to walk past before anyone climbs.
How to check a scaffolder
- Ask for the licence number and class. Most local scaffolders do not publish licence numbers, so the request is normal.
- Ask how it can be confirmed. Access Canberra's licensing team on 02 6207 8096 or cwpl@act.gov.au can say how licence details are checked. A licence from another state or territory is recognised in the ACT, so the issuer may not be Access Canberra. The border page explains.
- Ask who supervises. Above 4 metres, a licensed person erects, alters and dismantles. Ask who that is for your job.
- Ask for the handover paperwork. A tag, an inspection and a written confirmation that construction is complete.
What a licence cannot do
A licence cannot make a scaffold safe on its own. It does not inspect the scaffold after a storm, it does not give approval to use the nature strip and it does not change what the roofer or painter on the deck must do. It does not tell you the class a job needs, because no ACT page lists class scopes and the scaffolder decides from the site. It does not cover a trade working on the scaffold, who needs a safe work method statement of their own. This site cannot issue, check or verify a licence either: it is a referral service, and the regulators named here are the authority.
Check the current rules before you rely on this
This page describes how scaffolding work is licensed and regulated in the ACT by Access Canberra and WorkSafe ACT. It describes the rules in general terms as they stood in October 2026. Standards, forms, thresholds and fines change.
The authoritative sources are Access Canberra, high risk work licences, WorkSafe ACT, high risk licensing, WorkSafe ACT, scaffolding, WorkSafe ACT, scaffolding safety alert, WorkSafe ACT, scaffolding falls from height alert and ACT Planning, construction licences. Where anything here differs from those sources, they are right and we are not.
We are not scaffolders, engineers, regulators or lawyers. For what applies to your job, ask the scaffolding contractor, WorkSafe ACT (13 22 81) or, for work on public land, the ACT Government Public Land Use Team.
Accurate at the time of writing, October 2026. Always check the source before relying on it.