Lifting Equipment Inspections During Covid-19

Equipment legally subject Statutory Inspections or Thorough Examinations must continued to be examined

What can I do to help ensure my business can return to work asap? 

Following the Government’s announcement of measures designed to contain the outbreak of COVID-19, HSA is aware of concerns relating to the examination of equipment that is subject to statutory inspection time limits. 

The Health and Safety Authority enforces several pieces of legislation that contain requirements for time-bound statutory inspections, including the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. 

The HSA is advising owners of lifting equipment and in particular engineering companies who carry out the thorough examinations and testing of lifting equipment to note the following:

• Lifting equipment for the lifting of persons is carried out every six months with a dated report issued to the lift owner. The next six-month examination should take place on or before this date, but not after.
• All other lifting equipment must be inspected every 12 months.
• If no thorough examination has taken place prior to the date on the report, the lifting equipment should not be used until it has been examined by a competent person.
• However, if engineering companies, are suffering shortages in their own resources, they should consider focusing their thorough examinations on premises where the most vulnerable are located such as hospitals and care homes.
• At the current time, HSA is not considering issuing exemptions or relaxation of these requirements, but we recognise this is a fluid situation and this position is constantly under review.

Duty-holders have a legal responsibility to maintain work equipment and carry out thorough examinations, written schemes and Statutory Inspections. These legal duties exist to help manage the significant hazard that the failure of such equipment can pose, not complying with these duties can significantly increase the risk of harm to workers and members of the public. 

Under certain circumstances with the agreement of a suitable competent person, some legislation does allow thorough examinations/statutory inspections to be postponed to a later date. Even if such options are taken, it remains the duty-holders responsibility to ensure that the equipment is safe to use. 

Engineers who are working on sites where there are restrictions arising from the risk of COVID-19 infection should comply with site rules and take into account the wider Public Health advice regarding good hygiene practices and separation distances. Consideration needs to be given to protecting the engineers but also, where relevant, any vulnerable persons who may be affected by their work. 

What can Prolift Handling do to help ensure your business is ready to reopen safely?

Prolift offer a full range of on-site lifting and height safety equipment inspection along with LOLER testing services to ensure your lifting gear adheres to the strict regulations. We strive to prolong the lifetime of your lifting equipment and minimise the inconvenience and costliness of downtime.

Our fully qualified engineers are experienced and qualified to carry out the statutory lifting equipment examinations of all types of lifting gear and provide the mandatory test certification.

Should you need your equipment inspected and are concerned about our service engineers arriving on your site, please be advised that where possible we can collect the equipment from site, inspect in our workshop and then deliver back to site.

Please contact our service manager to arrange all lifting equipment inspections and service related enquiries.