What equipment is covered by LOLER?

Ryan Leavesley

3 days ago

5 min read

Updated: 12 hours ago

LOLER covers any work equipment used for lifting or lowering loads, including people, plus the accessories that attach the load. That means lifts, stairlifts, hoists, cranes, forklifts, telehandlers, MEWPs, vehicle lifts, tail lifts, jacks and slings, chains and shackles. It only applies to equipment used at work. Escalators, conveyors and most hand pallet trucks aren’t covered.

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LOLER defines lifting equipment as “work equipment for lifting or lowering loads”, including the attachments used to anchor, fix or support it (Regulation 2). A “load” includes a person. And a lifting accessory is anything used to attach the load to the machine doing the lifting.

That’s a wide net. If it lifts something at work, it’s probably in.

The full list

Equipment	Covered by LOLER?	Thorough examination at least every	Worth knowing
Passenger lift	Yes	6 months	It lifts people
Goods lift nobody rides in	Yes	12 months	6 months if staff ever ride in it
Stairlift or platform lift used at work	Yes	6 months	A stairlift in a private home usually isn’t
Patient, bath and pool hoists, and their slings	Yes	6 months	Each sling is a separate item
Forklift or telehandler	Yes	12 months	6 months if it’s ever used to lift people
MEWP, scissor lift or cherry picker	Yes	6 months	Including push-around vertical lifts
Overhead crane, jib crane or chain hoist	Yes	12 months	The gear hung from the hook is separate
Vehicle lift	Yes	12 months by law	6 months is what HSE and the industry expect
Vehicle tail lift	Yes	6 months if anyone rides it, otherwise 12	Most drivers ride it, so most are 6
Car jacks and engine hoists	Yes	12 months	HSE names these as lifting equipment
Excavator used for lifting	Yes, when it’s used to lift	12 months	Digging-only machines aren’t LOLER
Slings, chains, shackles, eyebolts, lifting beams	Yes, as lifting accessories	6 months	Every item needs its own record
Hand pallet truck that can’t lift above 300mm	No		PUWER applies instead
Escalator or moving walkway	No		Workplace Regulations and PUWER apply
Most conveyors	No		PUWER applies
Fall arrest harness worn in a MEWP	No		Work at Height Regulations apply. LOLER if it holds or lifts a person
Standard dock leveller	Usually not		PUWER, unless it’s designed to lift people

A written examination scheme drawn up by a competent person can set different intervals from the ones above (Regulation 9(3)(a)(iii)). And anything on the list needs examining again after damage, a major repair or a long spell out of use.

The 6 or 12 month rule

There’s a simple way to remember the intervals:

Every 6 months for anything that lifts people, and for every lifting accessory
Every 12 months for everything else

The rest of the detail is about which group an item falls into. A goods lift is 12 months until a member of staff rides in it. A tail lift is 12 months until the driver stands on the platform. That’s where most mistakes come from.

Range of lifting equipment including a forklift, chain hoist and slings in a workshop

When is it not covered?

LOLER only applies to lifting equipment used at work. HSE’s own examples of equipment outside LOLER’s specific rules include escalators, moving walkways, many conveyors and simple pallet trucks, and stairlifts in private homes or platform lifts used only by members of the public, where nobody is at work using them.

But not covered by LOLER doesn’t mean not covered at all:

Almost all of it is still work equipment under PUWER, so it has to be maintained and inspected.
Where the public uses it, the Health and Safety at Work Act still applies, and HSE suggests using LOLER and PUWER as a guide.

So a platform lift in a shop used only by customers isn’t strictly LOLER equipment. But if it fails, saying “it wasn’t covered by LOLER” won’t help much. Most sensible owners examine it every 6 months anyway.

The grey areas people ask about

Pallet trucks. Hand pallet trucks that can’t raise their forks above 300mm aren’t LOLER. Stackers and high-lift trucks are. More in does a pallet truck need a LOLER inspection?

Harnesses. A harness that stops a fall is fall protection. A harness that holds or lifts someone, as in rope access or rescue, is LOLER. More in do harnesses need a LOLER inspection?

Excavators. Only when they’re used for lifting. A machine that just digs is PUWER equipment.

Equipment you hire. It’s still covered. The hire company usually arranges the examination, but you mustn’t use it without evidence of its last one (Regulation 9(4)).

What does LOLER actually require?

For everything on the “yes” list, LOLER asks for:

Equipment that’s strong and stable enough for the job (Regulations 4 and 5)
Safe working loads clearly marked (Regulation 7)
Lifting operations planned and supervised by a competent person (Regulation 8)
Thorough examination at the right intervals, after installation and after anything that could affect safety (Regulation 9)
A written report each time, and action on any defects (Regulation 10)
Reports kept and available for inspection (Regulation 11)

There’s more on the difference between the two sets of rules in LOLER vs PUWER: what’s the difference?

Not sure what you’ve got?

Send us a list, or just walk round with your phone and photograph everything that lifts. We’ll tell you what’s covered, how often each item needs examining, and come back with a fixed quote.

We examine lifting equipment across Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and the Midlands. We also travel anywhere in the UK. Every examination is carried out and signed by me, Ryan Leavesley MSOE MBES, an engineer surveyor with over 14 years’ experience. Reports are written on site before I leave, with photos of anything that needs fixing, and once we’ve agreed a price, it stays fixed for all your ongoing examinations.