Every firm that lifts things keeps a LOLER register, whether it calls it that or not. Sometimes it is a binder of examination reports in the yard office. Sometimes it is the hire company's paperwork and a memory of when the slings were last done. The law does not ask for a register by name. It asks for the examinations, and for the reports to be kept. A register is simply the way to know, on any morning, which examination is due next.
When thorough examinations are due
The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) set the latest dates (regulation 9):
- Every 6 months for equipment that lifts people (a MEWP, a man riding basket) and for lifting accessories (chains, slings, a detachable quick hitch).
- Every 12 months for other lifting equipment (a crane, an excavator used for lifting, a fixed quick hitch).
- Or as an examination scheme sets, where a competent person has drawn one up for that equipment. The scheme's dates then apply.
Those are the longest intervals the law allows. An examination is also needed:
- after the equipment is installed, and after it is assembled at a new site or in a new location, before it is used;
- "each time that exceptional circumstances which are liable to jeopardise the safety of the lifting equipment have occurred": HSE gives damage or failure, long periods out of use and major changes as examples (HSE);
- before first use, unless the equipment is new and comes with a declaration of conformity made within the last 12 months.
Equipment that leaves the firm, or arrives from another, must carry "physical evidence that the last thorough examination ... has been carried out". For hired plant, that means asking for the report when it is delivered.
Thorough examination or inspection?
They are different things, and the register should keep them apart.
- A thorough examination is, in HSE's words, "a systematic and detailed examination of the equipment and safety-critical parts, carried out at specified intervals by a competent person who must then complete a written report".
- An inspection happens between examinations where the risk calls for it, "at suitable intervals", and "can often be the lifting equipment operator or maintenance personnel". It is recorded, but it is not the formal report. HSE adds that "lifting accessories do not normally need formal inspection, provided that proper pre-use checks are made".
Who can examine
LOLER does not define the competent person. HSE's approved code of practice says the examiner needs enough practical and theoretical knowledge to find defects and judge them, and "must be sufficiently independent and impartial to allow objective decisions to be made". They should not normally be the person who maintains the equipment (L113).
What the report contains
There is no set form. HSE: "There is no longer a defined format or form for such a report, provided that all 11 items listed in the Schedule are included" (Schedule 1). The items that matter most for a register:
- what was examined, identified clearly, and its safe working load;
- the basis of the examination: 6 months, 12 months, a scheme, or exceptional circumstances;
- any defect, the repair needed and, for a defect that is not yet dangerous, the date by which it must be put right;
- the latest date by which the next thorough examination must be carried out.
That last line is the one the register is built on.
When the examiner finds a defect
The examiner must tell the employer "forthwith" about a defect that "is or could become a danger to persons", and confirm it in the report even when it is fixed on the spot. Where there is "an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury", a copy goes to the enforcing authority, which is HSE when the equipment is hired or leased. The employer must not use the equipment "before the defect is rectified" (regulation 10).
How long to keep the reports
Regulation 11 sets it:
- a periodic examination report: "until the next report is made under that paragraph or the expiration of two years, whichever is later";
- the report of an examination after installation: for as long as the equipment is used at that place;
- the first examination report: for as long as the equipment is used (for an accessory, two years);
- an inspection record: "until the next such record is made".
Paper is not required. HSE: records "do not need to be kept in hard copy form but you should be able to provide a written copy when necessary".
What the register needs
One row for each item, with:
- what it is and its serial or plant number;
- the kind of examination: lifting persons, accessory, other lifting equipment, or a scheme;
- where it is: the yard, or which site;
- the date of the last thorough examination and the latest date for the next one, from the report;
- who examined it and the report's reference;
- defects found and what was done.
The free LOLER and PUWER register does this in Excel: it works out the next date from the kind, takes the report's date where a scheme applies, and colours what is overdue or due in the next 30 days.
If your examination reports live in a binder and a memory, tell me how you keep them now. Half an hour on Teams, no charge, and I will tell you what I would build first and roughly what it would take.