General Health and Safety

The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSAW) 1974 covers all workplaces and defines the obligation of all employers and employees to ensure a safe working environment. Employers are required to assess risks and have policies and procedures in place to control those risks. Whilst inspections are not a requirement under this legislation, they are recognised as part of providing a safe working environment. Compliance Health and Safety can ensure all of these requirements are put in place.

Work Equipment

The Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 covers all work equipment and any activity involving the equipment – including starting, stopping, programming, setting, transporting, repairing, modifying, maintaining, servicing and cleaning. Users must carry out PUWER assessments and make sure that all equipment is both safely installed and safe to use. Regular inspections must be carried out by a competent person and documented. Our qualified team of Engineer-Surveyors are well equipped to carry out the inspections for you.

In addition to these general pieces of legislation, there are specific regulations which apply to particular types of equipment, as follows:

Lifting

The key piece of legislation concerning lifting equipment is the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998. LOLER covers all working equipment with a lifting function. It applies in addition to PUWER, to offer adequate safeguards to people working with lifting equipment. The user is required to:

• Use a competent person to plan lifting operations
• Ensure that the equipment is suitable
• Ensure that the lifting operation will not endanger people in the vicinity
• Assess requirements for inspections of the lifting equipment and accessories
• Have regular thorough examinations carried out by a suitably competent person

Note that LOLER applies not only to the equipment itself but also to the safe operation of that equipment.

Timing of inspections

Following the installation of new plant and machinery, the requirements for initial examination vary according to the regulations which apply. The prudent approach and our recommendation is that all equipment is examined by a competent person following its installation/commissioning and before it is first put into use. There are certain circumstances where this is a mandatory requirement, if you require guidance on a specific situation then please contact us for advice.

Frequency of inspections

• LOLER Definitions:
• 'Accessory for lifting' – work equipment for attaching loads to machinery for lifting
• 'Lifting equipment' – work equipment for lifting or lowering loads including attachments for anchoring, fixing or supporting it
• 'Work equipment' – any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work
• Lifting equipment which lifts people - 6 months
• Lifting accessories, including shackles, hooks, chains, fittings etc - 6 months
• All other lifting equipment, including cranes and loading equipment - 12 months
• In accordance with an examination scheme
• In all cases, a risk assessment should be undertaken to ensure the examination frequency is appropriate

Electrical

The Electricity at Work Regulations (EAWR) 1989 are made under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The Regulations require that employers as ‘Duty Holders’ must provide a safe working environment with regard to all electrical equipment and systems, regardless of when they were manufactured, installed or brought into use.

The employer, self-employed and employee all have duties and obligations in complying with the requirements of the Regulations, which apply to all places of work, with no exemptions. All electrical systems must be maintained in a safe condition and an important aspect of such maintenance is periodic inspection and testing.

Fixed Electrical Wiring Inspection and Testing

To meet the requirements of the IEE wiring regulations all electrical systems, from the main intake through to the final fixed appliances and accessories, must be tested and inspected on a regular basis. The frequency of this testing is dependent on the type of premises and varies between three months and five years.

Many companies struggle to complete the testing using in-house personnel due to lack of time, resources and knowledge of this specialised field.

PAT Testing

The PAT industry faces a renewed emphasis to adopt a risk-based approach to workplace electrical safety testing which has implications for how and when testing is conducted.

From the customer perspective, this could potentially lead to confusion about what needs to be done and when. However, Compliance Health and Safety are now able to implement a risk-based approach that will ensure you are compliant and able to realise significant savings in relation to your testing.

The clear message is that electrical equipment inspection and testing regimes should be based on a more focused and robust approach to assessing the safety risks posed by appliances.

Compliance Health and Safety are able to respond positively to this change in emphasis and now have the opportunity to provide much more added value to their customers.

In effect, this will mean moving away from a simple cost per test-driven service to the provision of more thorough support based on a more professional advisory, testing and record keeping service.

This approach is in line the recently published fourth edition of the IET Code of Practice which emphasises the importance of taking a proportionate response to ensuring that all workplace electrical systems are safe to use.

To do this it says that a structured approach to risk assessment should be adopted for the determination of inspection and testing intervals.

The new guidance has been developed in response to concerns that the implied legal requirement for maintaining the safety of electrical appliances was being applied too broadly, resulting in situations of costly over compliance, particularly in some of the more low risk working environments.

If you had your testing done within the last 12 months Compliance Health and Safety can help to develop your risk-based approach to appliance testing and help you realise savings on your testing costs.

Call us now for more information or advice on 0800 6128 162 or email us via our Contact page.