FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations) are a set of regulations designed to make lifting operations, and the use of lifting equipment, as safe as can be. The regulations make sure that you select strong and stable equipment; position it in a suitably safe location; impose a system of regular checks, thorough inspections, and routine maintenance; and store equipment in a safe location, helping to prolong its usable life.

It also requires you to carefully plan every use of your equipment, taking into account all foreseeable risks; whilst also keeping any relevant safety records (EC Declarations of Conformity, thorough inspection reports, details of safe working loads, etc.). It places a duty on anyone managing a lifting operation, or the general use of lifting equipment, to make sure that operators are properly trained, and have enough experience to complete the job safely.

Your employer has a general duty under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to provide information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure the health and safety of their employees. Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 employers are required to ‘ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including training in the methods which may be adopted when using the work equipment, any risks which such use may entail and precautions to be taken’. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 also place duties on employers to provide training. By not providing you with any training at all, your employer could be breaking the law. Rider-operated lift trucks includes the requirements for basic lift-truck training.

Lift truck operators should be over the minimum school leaving age (MSLA), except in ports where they must be at least 18 years old.

There are particular definitions of people by age in health and safety law:

• a young person is anyone under eighteen years of age;
• a child is anyone who is not over compulsory school age (ie he or she has not yet reached the official age at which they may leave school). This is generally referred to as the minimum school leaving age.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require you to assess the health and safety risks to all your employees and to identify what you need to do to comply with your legal duties to prevent or control those risks and ensure your employees’ health and safety. Under the Regulations you have particular responsibilities towards young people:

• to assess risks to all young people under 18 years of age, before they start work;
• to ensure your risk assessment takes into account their psychological or physical immaturity, inexperience, and lack of awareness of existing or potential risks;
• to introduce control measures to eliminate or minimise the risks, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Children below the MSLA must not be employed in industrial undertakings such as factories, construction sites etc except when on approved work experience schemes.

For more information, visit: Young workers

Regulation 8(2) of LOLER defines a lifting operation as “an operation concerned with the lifting or lowering of a load”. A “load” is the item or items being lifted, which includes a person or people.

‘Lifting equipment’ means work equipment for lifting and lowering loads. This includes lifting accessories and attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting the equipment (examples of lifting equipment)