Is Your Lift Safety-Compliant?

Your author provides an overview of key areas to consider.

There are at least 23 areas of principal guidance covering the safe and efficient operation of lifts. This includes a range of standards, regulations, codes of practice and guidance. While there are far too many for us to detail in this article, we will give an overview of the key areas to consider, and briefly discuss the impact of the U.K.’s exit from the European Union (EU).

When first coming into use, lifts must meet the requirements for safety and conformity in their design, construction and installation. Thereafter, lift owners are legally bound to ensure the safety of their lifts and all passengers. Passenger lifts and combined goods/passenger lifts in workplaces are required to undergo periodic and thorough inspection. Owners also have a responsibility under the law to keep up to date with any changes that might affect their lift/escalator equipment. This is a highly specialised and sometimes complicated field that often requires expert guidance.

Lift owners and operators cannot rely on their suppliers to ensure that equipment complies with the law. You must therefore check that it has the appropriate UKCA or CE marking with an accompanying Declaration of Conformity; has instructions in the language for the country in which it operates; is free from obvious defects; and that it remains so during its working life.

The U.K.’s new UKCA conformity assessment mark replaced CE marking requirements at the end of the EU exit transition period, after 1 January 2021. While the UKCA marking applies in England, Scotland and Wales, the CE marking continues to be accepted in Northern Ireland.

Lifts Regulations 2016

Regardless of the outcome of negotiations between the EU and U.K., as the EU Directives are transposed into National Law, the U.K. already has a legal system in place that applies. EU harmonised standards will therefore simply be carried across as U.K. designated standards, to maintain a single model.

A good example of this transition is the Lifts Regulations 2016, which apply to the supply chain (installers, manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors) for lifts permanently serving buildings or constructions, and safety components used in lifts. These regulations came into force on 8 December 2016, after the U.K. voted to leave the EU, and they implement Directive 2014/33/EU relating to the harmonisation of the laws of EU member states.

The previous Lifts Regulations 1997 implemented the provisions of the EU’s Lifts Directive (95/16/EC) in U.K. law and will continue to apply to products that were placed on the GB market (England, Scotland, Wales) before 8 December 2016. For those placing lifts and safety components on the Northern Ireland market, there is separate guidance – “Product safety and metrology from 1 January 2021: Northern Ireland.”

Lifts and their components with a CE marking that are placed on the market before 31 December 2021 can continue to circulate on the GB market. From 1 January 2021, lifts and components should be conformity assessed by a U.K.-approved body and be UKCA marked, not CE marked.

PUWER

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) is the U.K. implementation of the European Work Equipment Directive. It requires users of work equipment to carry out risk assessments and provide work equipment that is suitable for its intended task, and can be used without putting persons at risk. PUWER regulations cover any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work

(whether exclusively or not). Effectively, this is anything used at work, and, therefore, includes lifts.

As an overview, PUWER requires that inspections are carried out:

• After installation and before being put into service for the first time; or after assembly at a new site or in a new location to ensure that it has been installed correctly and is safe to operate.
• After work equipment has been exposed to any conditions causing deterioration, which is liable to cause a dangerous situation.
• At suitable intervals; and
• Each time that exceptional circumstances have occurred that are liable to jeopardise the safety of work equipment.

The results of these inspections must be documented and kept until the next subsequent inspection is recorded. This means that there should be a current inspection report kept on file at all times.

While PUWER doesn’t actually suggest a risk assessment should be carried out, Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 does, requiring that risks to both the health and safety of employees, and those not employed but who are on site, are assessed. A thorough and correct risk assessment should, therefore, be completed before any new lifts go into operation and if substantial modifications are made. As PUWER inspections are an ongoing process, assessment documentation must always refer to the latest standards and not to the standards that were applicable when a lift was first brought into service.

In total, there are 39 PUWER regulations. A simple checklist can be constructed to determine the necessary compliance actions, and software is available to help automate this process. If the existence of a potential hazard is revealed, then a risk assessment must be carried out, with the implementation and recording of appropriate control measures.

LOLER

Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), elevator owners or those responsible for their safe operation, such as facilities managers, are considered ‘duty holders’ who have a legal responsibility to ensure that the lift is thoroughly examined and safe to use. Failure to comply with LOLER could result in an unlimited fine or imprisonment.

Regulation 9 of LOLER mandates a systematic and detailed examination of the lift and all its associated equipment by a competent person. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines a competent person as “someone who has sufficient technical and practical knowledge of the lift to be able to detect any defects and assess how significant they are.” The competent person must also be independent and impartial so that their assessment is objective. If an external inspection company is engaged, it is recommended that the business is accredited to BS EN ISO/IEC 17020:2004.

New lifts that have been manufactured and installed in accordance with the U.K.’s Lifts Regulations and have a current declaration of conformity, which means they were manufactured no more than 12 months previously, do not require an initial thorough examination. Thereafter, lifts carrying people should be examined at least every six months, and every 12 months for lifts carrying goods. A thorough examination is also required if substantial changes have been made to the lift, or where exceptional circumstances have been experienced.

A thorough examination is a systematic and detailed examination of the lift and its associated equipment by the competent person. Its aim is to detect any defects that are or might become dangerous, and for the competent person to report them to the duty holder and, if appropriate, to the enforcing authority. Once complete, a thorough examination may identify the requirement for a supplementary test or tests.

Supplementary tests may be called for by the competent person to demonstrate that safety components and various components fulfil their function — these are supplementary to the LOLER thorough examination. When called for, supplementary tests are a legal requirement for lift maintenance and, should an accident occur, the lift owner or premises manager may be prosecuted and judged against ‘best practice.’ 

No remedial work is undertaken during a thorough examination. Instead, recommendations, potential failures and actual failures are identified and reported on, acting as a check that maintenance is being carried out properly. It should therefore not be confused with preventive maintenance, which involves replacing worn or damaged parts, topping up fluid levels, and making routine adjustments to ensure that risks are mitigated.

It is not considered good practice for the same person who performs routine maintenance to also carry out the thorough examination. Otherwise, they would bring a bias, as they would be responsible for assessing their own work. If something were to go wrong with the lift, it would be difficult for the duty holder to prove due diligence.

Wider Responsibility

While LOLER and PUWER may not apply where a passenger lift is not used by people at work, but in a public space, the HSE advises that the general duties imposed by Section 3 of The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 mean that owners must keep their lifts in safe working order. The Act states that “it shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.” This means that owners of lifts being used in public spaces, such as shopping centres, cinemas or supermarkets, etc., must arrange for regular equipment maintenance to ensure that lifts are in safe working order, and must prove due diligence.

Of course, as the risks may be the same as when using lifts in connection with work, the HSE recommends a similar regime of maintenance, inspection and examination to that which is mandated under LOLER and PUWER. This is particularly pertinent when lift owners consider their public liability policies, as insurers will certainly require proof that the appropriate levels of risk management are in place.

While lift safety compliance may sound like a complex process, guidance is widely available. However, this is a highly specialised field, so, if in doubt, seek expert advice. Your lift services provider should be able to give you the best advice relating to possible breaches of legislation or potential issues regarding passenger safety, as well as what processes and procedures to put in place to mitigate risk. The safety of your employees, customers and the reputation of your business may depend upon it.