Last updated: 6 September 2026

LOLER inspection frequency lifts: how often does lifting equipment need a thorough examination?

Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), passenger and goods lifts require a thorough examination at least every six months, while most other lifting equipment needs examination at least every 12 months, or in line with a written scheme of examination. Missed deadlines have led to fines as high as £750,000 in recent HSE prosecutions.

Key Takeaways

• LOLER Regulation 9 sets a six-month thorough examination interval for lifting equipment used to lift people, including passenger lifts, platform lifts and lifting accessories.
• Most other lifting equipment — cranes, forklifts, hoists not used for people — needs thorough examination at least every 12 months under LOLER, unless a written scheme sets a different frequency.
• The HSE recorded 124 worker fatalities across Great Britain in 2026/25, alongside 59,219 RIDDOR-reportable employee injuries, with work-related injury and ill health costing the economy an estimated £22.9 billion, according to HSEBlog (2026).
• A coach company in Wrexham was fined £250,000 after HSE inspectors found 11 pieces of lifting equipment had gone without thorough examination, according to HSEBlog (2026).
• A crane collapse at Falmouth Docks in October 2026 forced the evacuation of around 250 workers and resulted in a £750,000 fine plus costs, according to ULS Lifting (2026).

What is LOLER?

LOLER is the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, a statutory instrument made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 that places specific duties on employers and duty holders who own, operate or have control over lifting equipment. LOLER sits alongside the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), which covers the safe use and maintenance of work equipment generally, while LOLER adds extra requirements specifically aimed at lifting operations.

The regulations apply to any equipment used at work for lifting or lowering loads, including passenger lifts, goods lifts, forklift trucks, cranes, hoists, mobile elevating work platforms and lifting accessories such as chains, slings and shackles. LOLER Regulation 9 is the specific clause that requires "thorough examination" — a more rigorous, documented inspection than a routine visual check — and it's the source of the six and 12-month intervals that most compliance teams need to track.

The HSE's guidance INDG339 sets out these duties in plain terms, and the full statutory text sits on legislation.gov.uk.

How often does LOLER require lifting equipment to be inspected?

LOLER inspection frequency depends on what the equipment is used for, not simply what type of equipment it is. Lifting equipment used to lift people — passenger lifts, platform lifts, lifting accessories fitted to it — needs thorough examination at least every six months. Lifting equipment and accessories not used to lift people need thorough examination at least every 12 months, unless a written scheme of examination specifies a shorter or different interval based on risk.

An additional thorough examination is also required after "exceptional circumstances" liable to jeopardise the safety of the lifting equipment — for example, after a significant modification, repair, or an incident that may have damaged the equipment. Getting this distinction wrong is one of the most common compliance failures FM teams encounter, and it's exactly where prosecutions tend to start.

The six-month rule: equipment that lifts people

Regulation 9(3)(a) of LOLER sets the six-month interval for:

• Passenger lifts in offices, retail units, shopping centres and residential blocks
• Platform lifts and stairlifts used to carry people
• Any lifting accessories (slings, chains, hooks) attached to equipment used for lifting people
• Equipment used in an application where a person could be lifted, even occasionally

One prosecution referenced by Lincolnshire County Council's HSB97 bulletin (2023) involved a company that pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(3)(a)(ii) — the specific six-month clause — and was fined £90,000 plus £3,068 costs. That case illustrates how narrowly the regulation is drawn, and how seriously the courts treat breaches of the six-month interval specifically.

The 12-month rule: other lifting equipment

Regulation 9(3)(b) sets the 12-month default for equipment not used to lift people, such as:

• Forklift trucks and lift trucks used in warehousing and logistics
• Mobile and tower cranes on construction sites
• Goods hoists and vehicle lifts
• General lifting accessories not attached to passenger-carrying equipment

The HSE's guidance on lift trucks makes clear that a forklift also needs routine PUWER "inspection" — a distinct, more frequent visual or operational check — on top of its LOLER thorough examination. Confusing the two duties, or assuming one satisfies the other, is a recurring source of non-compliance.

Written schemes of examination

A written scheme of examination is a document, usually drawn up by a competent person, that sets bespoke examination intervals for specific equipment based on its actual risk profile rather than the regulatory default. A scheme can shorten the standard interval — for example, requiring quarterly examination of a crane used in a harsh environment — but it cannot lawfully extend beyond the statutory maximums set in Regulation 9. The HSE's L113 Approved Code of Practice provides the technical detail duty holders and competent persons need when drafting one.

LOLER inspection intervals at a glance

Who is a competent person under LOLER, and what do they check?

A competent person under LOLER is an individual or organisation with the practical and theoretical knowledge, and the genuine authority, to carry out a thorough examination and make an objective judgement on whether equipment is safe to continue in use. The HSE has stated: "It is essential that the competent person carrying out any inspection is sufficiently independent and impartial to allow them to make objective decisions and has appropriate and genuine authority to quarantine defective equipment" (Health and Safety Executive).

Competent persons are typically engineer-surveyors employed by insurance companies or independent examination bodies, and many hold accreditation through schemes recognised by bodies such as the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) or the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed). They inspect for structural integrity, wear on load-bearing components, correct operation of safety devices and evidence of overloading, then issue a formal report under LOLER Regulation 10.

Defect categorisation and reporting duties

Thorough examination reports typically classify any faults found:

• Category A defects are so serious the equipment must be taken out of use immediately and reported to the enforcing authority (usually the HSE or local authority) without delay.
• Category B defects require remedial action by a specified future date but don't demand immediate withdrawal from service.
• Category C defects are observations for information, requiring no immediate action but worth monitoring.

Failing to act on a Category A defect, or continuing to operate equipment flagged as unsafe, is itself a separate and serious LOLER breach.

Why LOLER compliance failures are so costly

Non-compliance with LOLER inspection frequency isn't a paperwork technicality — it's tied directly to serious injury and death, according to HSE data. Handling, lifting or carrying accounted for 17% of all non-fatal workplace injuries in the year to March 2026, according to HSEBlog (2026), while 124 workers died in work-related incidents across Great Britain in the same period. Construction alone accounted for 35 of those 124 fatalities, with falls from height remaining the largest single cause, per the same source. The financial consequences for organisations that miss inspection deadlines are equally stark.

Recent enforcement cases

• A steel fabricator was fined £13,333 plus £2,527 costs after failing to carry out thorough examinations on two cranes within an extended deadline, according to HSEBlog (2026).
• A rail construction company was fined £600,000 following a guilty plea after a lifting operation exceeded safe lifting capacity, according to HSEBlog (2026).
• A coach company in Wrexham was fined £250,000 after HSE inspectors found 11 pieces of lifting equipment had gone without thorough examination, according to HSEBlog (2026).
• A crane collapse at Falmouth Docks in October 2026, which forced the evacuation of approximately 250 workers, led to a £750,000 fine plus costs following an HSE investigation, according to ULS Lifting (2026).

These cases span a wide spread of penalties — from low five figures to three-quarters of a million pounds — but the pattern is consistent: courts treat missed thorough examinations as a direct safety failure, not an administrative oversight.

In-house tracking vs a managed compliance system

Facilities teams typically manage LOLER intervals in one of two ways: a manual spreadsheet or paper diary system tracked by an in-house compliance officer, or a digital compliance platform that flags expiries automatically across a mixed estate. The manual route works for a handful of assets on a single site but breaks down quickly across a portfolio of buildings, contractors and equipment types — missed renewal dates are the single most common root cause behind the prosecutions above. A managed system removes the reliance on someone remembering to check a spreadsheet every month, replacing it with automated expiry alerts tied to a single register, an approach covered in more detail in this property maintenance software buyer's guide.

For FM providers and in-house estates teams juggling statutory building compliance alongside SIA licensing, BS 7858 vetting, fire risk assessments and Martyn's Law duties, this is precisely the gap Pulse Operations' compliance runway is built to close — one expiries dashboard covering lifting equipment thorough examinations alongside every other statutory and personnel deadline, rather than a separate spreadsheet for each discipline.

Your LOLER inspection frequency checklist

• Identify every piece of lifting equipment on your estate and classify it as "used to lift people" or "not used to lift people".
• Confirm six-month thorough examination intervals for all passenger lifts, platform lifts and attached lifting accessories.
• Confirm 12-month intervals for forklifts, cranes and goods hoists, checking whether a written scheme of examination sets a shorter interval.
• Appoint a genuinely independent, appropriately qualified competent person to carry out each thorough examination.
• Record every examination report under LOLER Regulation 10, including any Category A, B or C defects identified.
• Report Category A defects to the enforcing authority immediately and quarantine the equipment from further use.
• Retain examination records for the minimum period required and make them available to HSE inspectors on request.
• Build a single, auditable register covering every asset's next due date rather than relying on separate spreadsheets per site or contractor.

FAQ

How often does lifting equipment need to be inspected under LOLER?

Lifting equipment used to lift people needs thorough examination at least every six months under LOLER Regulation 9(3)(a). Other lifting equipment needs it at least every 12 months under Regulation 9(3)(b), unless a written scheme of examination sets a different interval.

Is LOLER inspection 6 or 12 months?

The interval depends on what the equipment does, not what type it is. Passenger lifts, platform lifts and lifting accessories attached to them require six-monthly thorough examination, while equipment such as forklifts and cranes not used to lift people require examination at least every 12 months.

Do lifting slings need to be inspected every 6 months?

Yes, in most cases lifting slings fall under the six-month interval. Lifting accessories such as slings, chains and shackles generally fall under the six-month interval in LOLER Regulation 9(3)(a)(ii), regardless of whether the main piece of equipment they're attached to lifts people or goods, though a written scheme can specify the applicable interval more precisely.

What is the difference between a LOLER thorough examination and a PUWER inspection?

A LOLER thorough examination is a formal, documented assessment carried out by a competent person at set statutory intervals, while a PUWER inspection is typically a more frequent, often visual, operational check carried out by a trained operator or in-house staff member. Equipment like forklift trucks needs both — one doesn't substitute for the other, as set out in HSE guidance on lift trucks.

Who can carry out a LOLER inspection?

Only a "competent person" with sufficient practical and theoretical knowledge of the equipment, and genuine independence and authority to flag defects, can carry out a LOLER thorough examination. The HSE has stressed that this person must have "appropriate and genuine authority to quarantine defective equipment," and they're typically engineer-surveyors from insurance companies or independent examination bodies.

How long must LOLER inspection records be kept?

LOLER examination reports must be kept available for inspection under Regulation 10. The HSE's L113 Approved Code of Practice sets out specific retention requirements depending on equipment type — generally until the next thorough examination is due, or longer for certain records. Duty holders should check the current L113 guidance for the exact retention period applicable to their equipment.

What happens if lifting equipment fails a LOLER inspection?

Equipment found with a Category A defect must be withdrawn from use immediately and the defect reported to the enforcing authority without delay. Continuing to use equipment known to have a serious defect, or missing the underlying examination altogether, is what has driven fines ranging from roughly £13,000 up to £750,000 in recent HSE prosecutions, according to HSEBlog (2026) and ULS Lifting (2026).

Keeping LOLER deadlines visible with Pulse Operations

Missed thorough examination deadlines are rarely a knowledge gap — they're a visibility gap, buried in a spreadsheet nobody checked this month. This is the exact problem in which the same failure pattern behind statutory building compliance also plays out in security and FM contracts, where SIA licences, BS 7858 vetting, DBS checks and Martyn's Law assessments all carry their own expiry dates that can just as easily slip.

Pulse Operations was built inside a working UK security and FM operation, Priority First, before being opened up to other operators, and its compliance runway tracks SIA, BS 7858, DBS, right to work, training and statutory building compliance deadlines — including lifting equipment thorough examinations — on one expiries dashboard rather than a separate spreadsheet per discipline.

For sites where lifting equipment sits alongside wider statutory building duties — fire doors, water hygiene, electrical testing — Pulse's facilities & work orders module ties PPM schedules, permits and asset registers together so contractors, due dates and completion evidence live in one auditable record rather than scattered across supplier emails. See how integrated security and FM software brings both sides of compliance under one system.

If your estate has outgrown the spreadsheet approach to LOLER and statutory compliance generally, get in touch with Pulse Operations for a walkthrough of how the compliance runway handles lifting equipment deadlines alongside the rest of your statutory obligations.

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