Looking after a passenger lift

Plenty of blocks of flats, offices, surgeries and shops have a passenger lift. Someone usually arranges its examinations and acts on what they find. Which law applies depends on who uses the lift. This page sets out the rules and what to do with the report.

Does LOLER apply to your lift?

HSE says lifts provided for use by workers in workplaces are subject to the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). Where a passenger lift is not used by people at work, it says LOLER "may not apply".

An employer or self-employed person who runs a lift in connection with their business still has duties to the people who use it. Those duties come from section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. HSE says a regime of maintenance, inspection and examination similar to LOLER's "may be entirely 'reasonably practicable'" in managing the risks.

How often it is examined

Where LOLER applies, regulation 9(3) covers lifting equipment exposed to conditions that cause deterioration. The employer must have equipment for lifting people thoroughly examined at least every 6 months, or in accordance with an examination scheme. A further examination is needed after anything liable to put the lift's safety at risk.

What a thorough examination is

HSE's leaflet for lift owners (INDG339) describes it as "a systematic and detailed examination of the lift and all its associated equipment by a competent person". Its aim is to find defects that are, or might become, dangerous.

The leaflet says a thorough examination "should not be confused with preventive maintenance". It lists what the examination should include, from the landing and car doors and their interlocks to the suspension ropes, safety gear and braking systems. It also says it is not advisable for the person who does the routine maintenance to carry out the examination, because they would be assessing their own work.

Between examinations

The leaflet says inspections should be carried out at suitable intervals between thorough examinations. A competent, trained employee can do them in-house. Its examples are checks that the alarm interlocks operate correctly and that lift doors cannot be opened from the landing side.

When the report finds a defect

HSE says the competent person must tell the dutyholder straight away about a serious defect, then follow it with the written report. The competent person must also send a copy to the enforcing authority. Where a defect is a danger to people, the dutyholder must make sure the lift is not used until it is put right. For a defect that does not need the lift stopped at once, the person responsible for the lift must put it right, or stop using it, within the time set out in the report.

HSE also lists the failure of any load-bearing part of lifting equipment as a dangerous occurrence that must be reported under RIDDOR.

A new or replacement lift

HSE says all conventional passenger lifts must meet the requirements of either the Lifts Regulations 2016 or the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 when first brought into use. Certain slow moving platform lifts, under 0.15 m/s, come under the Machinery Regulations.

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