LOLER Inspections in Harwich

We typically arrange inspections in Harwich within the same week of enquiry, with emergency response available for overdue or lapsed certificates. The visit is planned around your equipment and site, not just the next free slot.

Harwich's lifting plant centres on the port — cargo handling, warehousing and haulage — with marine and offshore engineering, and hotels, shops and care homes in Harwich and Dovercourt. We inspect forklifts, cranes, lifting accessories, tail lifts and passenger and goods lifts across them. We cover the whole area, including Old Harwich, Dovercourt and Parkeston.

You get a Report of Thorough Examination, which is what LOLER 1998 actually requires — the regulations call it a report, never a certificate. It is the document an HSE or local authority inspector, or an insurer, will ask for, and unlike a certificate it records the condition of the equipment as found, including any defect and the timescale to put it right. People also call this LOLER testing; a thorough examination is the broader assessment, and any load or functional test forms part of it where one is warranted.

It depends on the equipment: six months for equipment that lifts people (passenger lifts, MEWPs, patient hoists) and for lifting accessories, and twelve months for all other lifting equipment — unless a written examination scheme drawn up by a competent person sets different intervals.

A description of the equipment, the examination performed, identification of defects with severity classification, recommended timescales for repair, and the date of the next examination. The report is signed by the competent person who carried out the examination.

Usually within the same working week in Harwich, with an overdue passenger lift treated as a priority. Out-of-hours and weekend slots are subject to plant access and risk-assessment review.

Yes — independent inspection is the standard model. We deliberately take on no maintenance or repair work, so there is no conflict of interest.

The competent person classifies the defect by severity, and any defect that is or could become a danger to people is reported to you straight away rather than held for the report. If it is a danger now, the equipment must not be used until it is put right, and where it involves an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury a copy of the report also goes to the enforcing authority (HSE or the local authority, depending on the premises) under LOLER Regulation 10. A defect that could become dangerous is given a date by which it must be fixed, and the equipment must not be used after that date until it is.

Yes, on the same day as the examination. Digital Reports of Thorough Examination include photographs of what was examined and any defect, can be supplied to insurer portals or FM platforms on request, and we remind you before the next examination is due.