| Reference | What it covers | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Lifts Regulations 2016 | Supply of new lifts — conformity assessment, UKCA/CE marking, installer duties | Lifts permanently serving buildings that carry persons, or goods in a car a person can enter and operate |
| Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 | The machinery rules, implementing what most people still call the Machinery Directive | Most goods-only lifts, most platform lifts and stairlifts, service lifts |
| LOLER 1998 | Thorough examination of lifting equipment in use | All lifting equipment at work, whatever it was supplied under |
| PUWER 1998 | Suitability, maintenance, inspection and training | All work equipment, lifts included |
| BS EN 81-20 | Construction and installation safety rules | New passenger and goods passenger lifts |
| BS EN 81-50 | Design rules, calculations, examinations and tests of components | Components for new lifts |
| BS EN 81-28 | Remote alarm — two-way emergency communication | Passenger and goods passenger lifts |
| BS EN 81-70 | Accessibility, including for people with disabilities | Passenger lifts in accessible buildings |
| BS EN 81-72 | Firefighters lifts | Buildings requiring a firefighting shaft |
| BS EN 81-73 | Behaviour of lifts in the event of fire — recall and shutdown | Passenger lifts in buildings with fire detection |
| BS EN 81-80 | Improving the safety of existing lifts, by assessed risk | Lifts already installed and in service |
| BS EN 81-40 / 81-41 | Stairlifts and inclined platforms / vertical lifting platforms | Accessibility plant for impaired mobility |
| BS 9999 and BS 9991 | Fire safety design and management codes, including evacuation lifts | Buildings, not the lift in isolation |
Are standards the same as law?
Usually not, and this trips people up. The regulations carry the legal duty. A standard is a technical specification, and meeting a designated standard normally gives a presumption that the equipment conforms to the supply regulations. In use, your duties come from LOLER and PUWER; the EN 81 standards are the benchmark a competent person measures against, not a separate statutory obligation.
Which rules applied when the lift was supplied?
If it carries people and permanently serves a building, the Lifts Regulations 2016. If it carries goods only, or is a platform lift or stairlift, it most likely came under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 — the machinery rules. Both routes end in a conformity marking and a declaration, but they are different regimes with different conformity assessment, which is why a goods lift and a passenger lift in the same building can have quite different documentation.
Does a goods lift really follow different rules from a passenger lift?
At supply, yes. The dividing line is broadly whether the lift is intended to carry persons. A goods-only lift that nobody is supposed to ride is machinery; a passenger lift, or a goods passenger lift designed for an accompanying operator, falls under the Lifts Regulations. Once either is installed and in use, LOLER applies to both — the twelve-monthly interval for goods-only plant, six-monthly where it carries people.
What is the Machinery Directive, in UK terms?
It is the EU directive the UK implemented through the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, and the name has stuck in everyday use long after the UK stopped referring to directives. If a supplier tells you equipment is Machinery Directive compliant, what matters for a GB installation is whether it meets the applicable UK supply regulations and carries the right conformity marking.
What standards cover lifts and fire?
Two of the EN 81 family deal with fire directly. BS EN 81-72 covers firefighters lifts — the lift provided for fire and rescue service use in a firefighting shaft, built to keep working while the building is being fought. BS EN 81-73 covers how ordinary passenger lifts behave when fire is detected, which is normally recall to a designated level and shutdown so nobody uses them to escape. The building-level codes BS 9999 and BS 9991 sit above both.
What is an evacuation lift, and is it the same thing?
No. A firefighters lift is for the fire and rescue service. An evacuation lift is for getting people out — particularly those who cannot use stairs — under a managed procedure, and it needs its own power supply, protection and management plan. The two get conflated, which matters, because assuming a firefighters lift doubles as an evacuation lift is a planning error rather than a technical one.
What standard covers BMUs and suspended cradles?
BS EN 1808, which sits outside the EN 81 family entirely because suspended access equipment is a different kind of machine from a lift. It covers design calculation, stability, construction and the examinations and tests applied to building maintenance units, cradles and temporary suspended platforms. The practical consequence for an estate holding both is that the lift and the façade access plant are examined against separate standards, on the same six-monthly interval, by someone who needs to know both — which is why a BMU is frequently the item on a building's register with the longest gap in its history.
Can an old lift be made to meet current standards?
Not retrospectively, and it is not generally required to. BS EN 81-80 exists for exactly this: it provides a method for assessing the risks an existing lift presents against modern expectations, and prioritising improvements. It is the sensible route for an older installation — a risk-ranked list of what to do first, rather than an unaffordable demand to rebuild to current design standards.
Which of these does a thorough examination check against?
None of them directly, and all of them indirectly. A thorough examination assesses whether the equipment is safe to continue in use, and a competent person uses the design standards as the reference point for what good looks like — particularly on older plant, where EN 81-80 helps frame whether a shortfall is a historic design difference or a defect that needs action now.
Sources & Further Reading
- The Lifts Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/1093) (opens in a new tab)
- The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1597) (opens in a new tab)
- Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2307) (opens in a new tab)
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2306) (opens in a new tab)
Independent inspection, same-day report with photos
We reply within one business hour, and the inspection is carried out by an engineer with hands-on experience of that kind of plant.