LOLER 1998: Lifting Operations Guide for Construction

What Is LOLER 1998?

LOLER stands for the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2307). It's the regulation that sits underneath the Health and Safety at Work Act and deals specifically with lifting kit, how it's inspected, how it's used, and who's allowed to sign off on it.

If your work involves getting a load off the ground, whether that's a hoist lifting a skip of bricks, a crane placing a roof truss, or a chain block pulling an engine out of a plant machine, LOLER is the regulation that applies. It doesn't matter how big or small the lift is. A gin wheel on a scaffold and a 100-tonne mobile crane are both covered by the same set of duties, just with different practical requirements attached.

The regulations were written because lifting failures tend to be sudden and severe. A sling that's been overloaded or a hoist that's never been checked doesn't usually give you a warning before it fails. LOLER exists to catch that risk before it turns into an incident.

What Equipment Does LOLER Cover?

LOLER covers lifting equipment and lifting accessories used at work. That's a wider net than most people expect. It includes the obvious big kit and the small bits of gear that get chucked in the back of a van without much thought.

The key test is simple: if it's used to raise or lower a load, or to support a load in a raised position, it's lifting equipment under LOLER. Accessories for lifting, the slings, shackles, and chains that connect the load to the machine, get their own attention in the regulations because they're the parts most likely to be misused, overloaded, or swapped between jobs without a second thought.

What LOLER Requires You to Do

LOLER breaks down into a handful of core duties. Regulation 5 says lifting equipment has to be strong enough and stable enough for the job, and positioned or installed to keep the risk of it striking someone or the load falling as low as reasonably possible. Regulation 6 adds extra precautions where the equipment is being used to lift people, since a fall from a MEWP basket or a passenger hoist is a different order of risk to a dropped pallet. Regulation 7 requires equipment to be marked with its safe working load (SWL), so anyone using it can see at a glance what it's rated for. Regulation 8 says lifting operations involving lifting equipment must be properly planned, supervised, and carried out by people who are competent to do it. Regulation 9 sets out the thorough examination requirements, which is where most of the day-to-day compliance work actually sits.

In practice, this turns into a routine you build into how the job runs, not a one-off form you fill in and forget.

A lifting plan doesn't need to be a huge document for a straightforward lift. For a simple job it might be a page covering the load weight, the equipment being used, who's supervising, and the exclusion zone. For a complex lift, like a crane working near overhead lines or lifting over an occupied building, it needs a lot more detail and sign-off from someone competent to plan lifts of that type.

Thorough Examination: When and How Often

Thorough examination is the part of LOLER that trips people up most, mainly because the interval isn't the same for everything. The regulations set two main intervals, and getting them mixed up is an easy way to end up with expired paperwork on site.

On top of the routine schedule, a thorough examination is also needed before equipment is used for the first time, after it's been installed or assembled on a new site, and after any exceptional circumstance that could have affected its safety, things like a near miss, an overload, damage from an impact, or a long period out of use. If in doubt, the safer move is to get it checked rather than assume it's fine.

Don't confuse a thorough examination with routine maintenance or a pre-use check. A pre-use check is something the operator does before each shift, looking for obvious damage or wear. A thorough examination is a formal inspection carried out by a competent person, and it results in a written report, not just a tick on a checklist.

Who Can Carry Out a Thorough Examination?

LOLER says the thorough examination has to be done by a "competent person," and that phrase carries more weight than it sounds. It doesn't just mean someone who's used the equipment before. It means someone with the right training, knowledge, and practical experience to spot defects, and who is independent enough from the work to give an honest report even if that means condemning equipment that's due to be used the next day.

For most small and medium contractors, that independence requirement means bringing in a third-party inspection body rather than getting a member of staff to sign off their own kit. Some larger organisations have in-house engineers who are genuinely independent of the operational pressure to keep equipment running, but for most trades on site, a third-party competent person is the practical route.

The HSE's Approved Code of Practice, L113 (Safe Use of Lifting Equipment), sets out what's expected of a competent person and how thorough examinations should be carried out. It's worth reading if you want the detail behind the regulation rather than just the summary version.

Once the examination is done, Regulation 9(3) requires the report to be kept and made available if an inspector asks for it. Losing the paperwork is treated much the same as not having done the examination at all, so keep copies somewhere you can actually find them, not just in a folder on a site cabin desk that gets cleared out at the end of the job.

LOLER vs PUWER: What's the Difference?

LOLER and PUWER get mentioned in the same breath a lot, and they do overlap, but they're not the same thing. PUWER (the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) covers work equipment in general, everything from a drill to an excavator, and deals with things like guarding, maintenance, and making sure operators are trained. LOLER is narrower and deals specifically with the lifting side of things.

A telehandler is a good example of where both apply at once. PUWER covers it as a piece of work equipment, so it needs to be maintained, guarded where necessary, and operated by someone trained on it. The moment that telehandler is used to lift a suspended load with a jib and hook rather than forks, LOLER kicks in as well, and the thorough examination and lifting plan requirements come into play. Most bits of construction plant with a lifting function are dealt with under both regulations at the same time, not one or the other.

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