Skip to main content
Integrity Lift Compliance
Knowledge Base

UK Lift Compliance: The Complete Legal Framework

Lift compliance in the UK isn't governed by a single regulation. Safety in use comes from LOLER 1998 and PUWER 1998, access from the Equality Act 2010, and the BS EN 81-20/81-50 standards set the design baseline new lifts are built to — four frameworks that do different jobs and are easily confused.

Written and reviewed by Mark Crowley, Director, Integrity Lift Compliance Ltd — 26+ years hands-on lifting equipment engineering — NHS, commercial and industrial estates

·

The four frameworks at a glance
FrameworkWhat it governsWho enforces itTrigger
LOLER 1998Periodic thorough examination of lifting equipment in useHSE / local authorityEvery 6 or 12 months, by equipment class
PUWER 1998Suitability, maintenance and operator trainingHSE / local authorityContinuous — throughout the equipment's working life
Equality Act 2010Reasonable adjustments for disabled people, anticipatory where the public is servedCourts and tribunals (claim-based, not routine inspection)Ongoing duty on service providers and employers
BS EN 81-20 / 81-50Design, construction and component verification methods for new liftsNotified bodies at installation; referenced by examiners on older plantNew installation or major modification

What does LOLER 1998 require?

The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 place duties on employers, the self-employed and anyone in control of lifting equipment, under Regulation 9, to have it thoroughly examined by a competent person at set intervals — every six months for equipment that carries people or lifting accessories, every twelve months for goods-only plant, or in line with a written examination scheme where one exists. Each examination produces a signed Report of Thorough Examination; where a defect poses an existing or imminent risk of serious injury, Regulation 10 requires the competent person to tell the duty-holder straight away and send a copy of the report to the relevant enforcing authority — HSE or the local authority, depending on the premises.

What does PUWER 1998 require?

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 sit underneath LOLER and apply more broadly, to all work equipment including lifts. Regulation 4 requires equipment to be suitable for the purpose and conditions it's used in; Regulation 5 requires it to be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair, with any maintenance log kept up to date; Regulations 8 and 9 require operators to receive adequate information, instruction and training. None of this is satisfied by a clean LOLER report alone — PUWER is the ongoing discipline that runs in the gaps between LOLER's periodic examinations.

What does the Equality Act 2010 require?

The Equality Act 2010 carries forward and extends the accessibility duties of the earlier Disability Discrimination Act. For an organisation providing services to the public, the duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory, not reactive — adjustments have to be made in advance for the range of disabled people likely to use the service, not only when a specific complaint is raised. An employer's duty, by contrast, is owed to individual disabled staff and job applicants. For a lift, reasonable adjustments can mean level access at the threshold, tactile and audible floor indication, controls at a reachable height, sufficient door-open time, and a two-way emergency communication system everyone can use. This duty runs alongside LOLER and PUWER, not instead of either — a lift can pass its statutory examination and still fall short of Equality Act expectations.

What do BS EN 81-20 and 81-50 cover?

BS EN 81-20 and BS EN 81-50 are the harmonised European safety standards covering the design, construction and verification of new lifts, having superseded the older EN 81-1/81-2 standards for new installations since September 2017. EN 81-20 sets the requirements for the lift installation itself — the car, shaft, doors, suspension and safety components. EN 81-50 sets out the examination, calculation and testing methods used to verify that those components meet the requirements EN 81-20 sets. They apply most directly at installation, but a competent LOLER examiner will still reference them as the benchmark when judging whether an older installation's safety components remain fit for purpose.

How do you satisfy all four together?

In practice: LOLER's examination cycle catches deterioration and defects as they arise, PUWER's maintenance and training regime keeps the equipment safe to operate in between those examinations, the Equality Act ensures the lift remains genuinely usable by everyone who needs it, and BS EN 81-20/81-50 set the design baseline the equipment was originally built — or upgraded — to meet. None of the four substitutes for another. A clean LOLER report doesn't demonstrate PUWER maintenance records exist; full accessibility compliance doesn't reduce the statutory examination interval; and meeting BS EN 81-20 at installation doesn't remove the ongoing duty to keep examining the equipment for the rest of its working life.

Who actually enforces it?

Enforcement is split between HSE and local authorities by the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998, and the split turns on the main activity at the premises rather than on the equipment. Broadly: HSE covers factories and manufacturing, construction sites and hospitals; your local council's environmental health team covers offices, shops and retail, warehousing for wholesale and retail distribution, hotels, catering and leisure. So a shopping centre's escalators and a hotel's pool hoist are a council matter, while the same equipment in a factory is HSE's. If you do not know which applies to your site, that is worth establishing before a visit rather than during one.

Sources & Further Reading

See our full PUWER 1998 Compliance overview
Need a LOLER inspection?

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.

Request a SurveyOverdue inspection?

Need this doing rather than just understood?

Independent statutory examination across London, Kent and the South East. We sell no maintenance, repairs or parts, so a defect we record is never a quotation in disguise.

07496 873972Request an inspection
Already overdue? Next working day for an overdue passenger lift in London, same week across Kent and the South East — and what to do in the meantime.

Related Knowledge

What is LOLER?
LOLER is the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. It applies across Great Britain to lifting equipment used at work, and requires that equipment to be strong and stable enough for the job, properly installed and marked, used in planned lifting operations, and thoroughly examined by a competent person at set intervals: every six months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, and every twelve months for everything else, unless a written examination scheme sets different ones.
Read article
What Is PUWER?
PUWER is the set of UK laws that keeps people safe when they use machinery and tools at work. It covers everything from a hand tool to a factory machine or a vehicle, and it says equipment must be right for the job, kept in safe working order, checked regularly, and used only by people trained to use it. The formal name is the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
Read article
LOLER vs PUWER
PUWER covers all work equipment and sets the general duties: suitable, maintained, inspected where it can deteriorate, guarded and used by trained people. LOLER adds specific duties for equipment that lifts, including a thorough examination at fixed intervals with a prescribed written report. Lifting equipment is covered by both; other work equipment comes under PUWER but not LOLER.
Read article