What is lifting operations / lifting equipment?
Lifting
Equipment is defined as any equipment whose principal purpose is to lift
or lower loads, including attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting
it. The Regulations cover a wide range of equipment including:
- Cranes,
fork-lift trucks, passenger lifts, jacks, axle stands, mobile elevating
platforms, vehicle inspection platforms, patient lifting hoists, dumb waiters
in hotels or restaurants, vehicle tail lifts, ropes and pulleys used to
raise materials on building sites. etc.
- All lifting accessories such
as chains, ropes, slings, shackles, eyebolts, harnesses, etc.
Why is lifting
equipment important?
These Regulations replaced many other pieces of Health
and Safety Legislation and were introduced in order to control and minimise
the risks posed by lifting equipment and related operations to employees
and others including members of the public, contractors, other users of
the premises, sites etc.
What does the law say?
All employers have statutory
obligations in relation to the health and safety of their employees and
premises. There are elements of the following legislation that affect the
use of lifting equipment and carrying out lifting operations in the workplace:
- The
Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER). In general,
the law requires that any lifting equipment for use at work is:
- Suitable,
strong and stable enough for the particular use and marked to indicate
safe working loads
- Positioned and installed to minimise any risks
- Used
safely i.e. the work is planned, organised and performed by competent people
- Marked
with the safe working load, and if it is used for carrying people with
the maximum number that can be carried
- Subject to ongoing thorough examination,
( usually detailed within a written Scheme of Examination drawn up by a
competent person) and where appropriate inspection by competent people
- Reg.3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
1992 (MHSWR)
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations
(PUWER)
Good lifting equipment practice
Based on the results of the risk
assessment, safe systems of work should be developed and used for all lifting
operations taking into account the working environment, geographical location,
local site conditions etc., where the equipment is to be used. You need
to ensure that all lifting equipment, and any accessories or attachments,
are:
- Sufficiently strong, stable and suitable for the proposed use.
- Positioned
or installed to prevent the risk of injury, e.g. from the equipment or
the load falling or striking people.
- Visibly marked with any appropriate
information relevant to its safe use, e.g. safe working loads. All lifting
operations should be planned and carried out by a competent person, (someone
with sufficient knowledge, experience, training, and other attributes),
to ensure that they are carried out safely.
More information on lifting
operations
http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/90-4.htm
Free HSE publications:
Simple guide to the lifting operations and lifting
equipment regulations 1998
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg290.pdf 
Guidance
on the application of provision and use of work equipment regulations 1998
and the lifting operations and lifting equipment regulations 1998 to motor
vehicle repair
http://www.hse.gov.uk/fod/infodocs/803_69.pdf |
