Changing LOLER inspection provider does not reset your examination dates. The reports, scheme and register to secure before the old contract ends.
Changing provider does not pause or reset your LOLER duties. Every item still has to be examined by the date its last report gives, or in line with its examination scheme, whoever carries out the next examination. What needs managing is the handover: the latest reports, any examination scheme and an accurate record of what is due when.
Does changing provider change your examination dates?
No. The dates come from the equipment, not the contract. Under LOLER regulation 9(3)(a), lifting equipment is examined at least every 6 months if it lifts people or is an accessory for lifting, at least every 12 months otherwise, or in accordance with an examination scheme. Schedule 1 to LOLER requires every report to state the latest date by which the next thorough examination must be carried out.
That date stands when you change provider. A new contract that starts after an item falls due does not extend the deadline, so the first visit under the new arrangement needs to be booked against the earliest due date across your equipment, not the contract start date.
What happens to an existing examination scheme?
It does not lapse because the author has left. HSE's L113, at paragraph 343 (Guidance), says the competent person who draws up an examination scheme could also carry out the examinations, but that they could be carried out by another competent person with the appropriate knowledge and experience.
L113 paragraph 330 (Guidance) says that where the examination is carried out by someone other than the competent person who set longer or shorter periods, the basis for those periods should be included in the information given to them. Ask the outgoing provider for the scheme and the reasoning behind its intervals. Under L113 paragraph 338 (Approved Code of Practice), it is for the competent person to decide what changes the scheme needs, so the incoming examiner may review it.
Why does it matter who holds the scheme?
Because you may be asked to produce it. L113 paragraph 331 (Guidance) says that if the user or owner cannot produce a written examination scheme when an inspector from the enforcing authority asks for it, it will be assumed that the equipment is being examined at the intervals set in the Regulations.
L113 paragraph 336 (Approved Code of Practice) says a scheme need not be kept as a document, but it should be capable of being reproduced as a written copy, secure from loss or unauthorised change, and authenticated by the competent person who prepared it. If yours exists only in a provider's system, get a written copy before the contract ends.
Which records should you secure before the old contract ends?
The reports are yours to keep, not your provider's. LOLER regulation 11 places the duty to keep report information available for inspection on the employer, so a change of provider is not a reason for any report to go missing. Secure the latest report for every item, older reports still inside their retention period, and any declarations of conformity.
Ask as well for any open defects and the dates attached to them. Under LOLER regulation 10(3)(b), equipment with a defect that could become dangerous must not be used after the time the report specifies unless the defect has been put right. Our guide to the thorough examination covers how defects are classified and how long each report is kept.
Is there a legal handover process?
No. LOLER says nothing about contracts between a duty holder and an inspection provider, so notice periods and the return of data are matters for your agreement. It is worth checking that agreement early for how and when records are handed back, and in what format.
What LOLER does fix is the duty holder's position. The duty to have equipment examined, and to keep the reports, stays with the employer and anyone else in control of the equipment throughout, whichever firm is appointed.
Do you have to change your maintenance contract too?
No. Thorough examination and maintenance are separate activities, and moving one does not require moving the other. LOLER does not require the examiner to be independent of the maintainer. L113 paragraph 298 (Guidance) says the law does not expressly preclude the person who maintains equipment from also examining it, though the examiner should not normally be the same person who carries out routine maintenance, except where the risk of injury to others is low.
If separating the two is your reason for changing, our page on why independence matters sets out why we keep examination apart from maintenance. That separation is our choice as a business, not a legal requirement.
What should the new provider ask you for?
Expect to be asked for a list of the equipment, its locations, the latest report for each item, any examination scheme and any open defects. A good provider will use that to confirm the earliest due dates before quoting a programme, rather than starting a fresh cycle from its own first visit.
Where records are incomplete, the incoming competent person may need to examine some items sooner than the paperwork suggests. That is better found at the handover than at an enforcing authority visit.
How does EIS handle a changeover?
We work from your existing reports, align the first examinations with the dates they give, and set up the equipment register with you on site. We do not maintain, repair, sell or hire equipment, so moving your examinations to us does not require any change to your maintenance arrangements.
You can see how a thorough examination with us works, ask for a sample report before committing, and read how we price LOLER work. We cover Kent, London, Essex, Surrey and Sussex directly.
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