| Regulation | What it requires | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 3 — Application | Duties fall on employers, the self-employed, and anyone with control of the equipment or its use, to the extent of that control | Assuming the duty belongs only to whoever owns the equipment |
| 4 — Strength and stability | Equipment of adequate strength and stability for each load, and the same for every part of the load | Loads taken through an attachment point never designed to carry them |
| 5 — Lifting equipment for lifting persons | Prevent a person being crushed, trapped or struck, or falling from the carrier, and prevent the carrier itself falling | Riding a goods lift, or using a forklift without a properly designed man-basket |
| 6 — Positioning and installation | Positioned and installed to reduce the risk of equipment or load striking anyone, or the load drifting, falling freely or being released unintentionally | Loads routed over occupied areas; machines sited beneath services |
| 7 — Marking of lifting equipment | Machinery and accessories marked with safe working loads; equipment for lifting persons marked as such; equipment not designed for lifting persons marked clearly to that effect | Unmarked slings nobody can tie to a report; goods lifts with no notice against carrying people |
| 8 — Organisation of lifting operations | Every lifting operation properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised, and carried out in a safe manner | An immaculate examination file and no plan for the lift itself |
| 9 — Thorough examination and inspection | Examination before first use, after assembly at a new site, at six- or twelve-monthly intervals or under a scheme, and after exceptional circumstances | The interval slipping, and the after-relocation trigger being forgotten entirely |
| 9 — Equipment moving between undertakings | Lifting equipment must not leave the undertaking, or be used having come from another, without physical evidence that the last thorough examination has been carried out | Plant arriving on site on a promise that the paperwork will follow |
| 10 — Reports and defects | A written report from the competent person; dangerous defects reported to the duty-holder at once, and a copy to the enforcing authority where there is an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury | Reports filed as evidence of compliance while the defects in them go unactioned |
| 11 — Keeping of information | Reports kept available for inspection; accessories for at least two years | Records held only by the maintenance contractor, and lost with the contract |
Which regulations apply if you do not own the equipment?
Regulation 3 is the one that catches people. The duties fall on employers, on the self-employed, and on any person who has control of the lifting equipment, of the person at work using it, or of the way it is used — in each case to the extent of that control. Ownership is not mentioned. A managing agent who arranges nothing but the maintenance still has control of something, and therefore duties over it.
What does Regulation 7 require you to mark?
Safe working loads, legibly, on the machinery and on every accessory. Equipment designed for lifting persons must be marked accordingly, and — the half that gets forgotten — equipment that is not designed for lifting persons must be clearly marked to say so where there is any chance of confusion. An unmarked sling cannot be matched to any examination record, which makes it unusable in practice even if it was examined last week.
What does Regulation 8 mean by properly planned?
That somebody competent has thought about this lift before it happens: the load and its weight, the equipment and accessories chosen, the route, the ground or structure beneath, the people nearby, the weather where it matters, and what happens if something does not go to plan. Routine lifts can be covered by a generic plan. Unusual ones cannot, and that is where the failures cluster.
Does brand-new equipment need examining before first use?
Not always, and this is the exemption most people have never heard of. Regulation 9 requires a thorough examination before lifting equipment is put into service for the first time — unless it has not been used before and the duty-holder has received a declaration of conformity made not more than twelve months earlier. New plant with current conformity documentation can therefore go straight into service, unless its safety depends on how it is installed, in which case Regulation 9(2) still requires an examination after installation. New plant whose paperwork is older than twelve months cannot. Used plant can go straight into service only if it comes from another business with physical evidence of its last thorough examination.
Can equipment move between sites or companies without a report?
No. Regulation 9 also requires that lifting equipment does not leave an undertaking, and is not used having been obtained from someone else's undertaking, unless it is accompanied by physical evidence that the last thorough examination has been carried out. That is why plant arriving on a promise that the certificate will follow should not go into service — the evidence has to travel with the equipment, not behind it.
Which regulation do prosecutions usually turn on?
More often Regulation 8 than Regulation 9. A lapsed examination is a paperwork failure that an inspector will take seriously, but the incidents that injure people are usually lifting operations that were badly planned, poorly supervised, or improvised when conditions changed. A current report proves the equipment was sound; it says nothing about how it was used on the day.
What does Regulation 5 add for equipment that lifts people?
A separate and higher set of requirements: preventing a person being crushed, trapped or struck, preventing them falling from the carrier, and preventing the carrier falling — with suitable devices to achieve that last point or, where the site makes that impossible, an enhanced safety coefficient rope or chain that a competent person inspects every working day — and making sure anyone trapped in a carrier is not exposed to danger and can be freed. This is why the six-monthly interval exists, and why a goods lift is not simply a passenger lift with worse decoration.
Does a thorough examination check all of these?
No, and it is worth being clear about it. A thorough examination under Regulation 9 assesses the equipment's condition and fitness for continued use, and a competent person will note marking defects under Regulation 7 along the way. It does not audit how you plan lifting operations, who you trained, or whether the load route passes over a walkway. Those duties stay yours between visits.
What do Regulations 1, 2 and 12 onwards do?
They are the machinery of the instrument rather than duties on you — citation and commencement, the definitions the rest of the regulations use, and the exemptions, amendments and revocations at the end. The definitions in Regulation 2 are worth a look when a classification is genuinely disputed, because the argument is usually about what counts as lifting equipment rather than about what must be done with it.
Sources & Further Reading
Independent inspection, same-day report with photos
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