What Is Lifting Equipment Under LOLER?

What qualifies as lifting equipment under LOLER 1998, including cranes, hoists, lifts and accessories requiring thorough examination.

When operating lifting equipment in any UK workplace, the first and most critical question duty holders face is defining exactly what falls under the regulations. The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) impose distinct legal duties, but what actually counts as ‘lifting equipment’ under the law?

LOLER (Statutory Instrument 1998/2307) applies across virtually every sector — from healthcare and facilities management through to construction, retail, and manufacturing. Understanding the legal scope of the equipment in your control is the foundation of a defensible health and safety compliance strategy.

The legal definition of lifting equipment

Under Regulation 2(1) of LOLER, lifting equipment is defined as “work equipment for lifting or lowering loads and includes its attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting it.”

Crucially, a ‘load’ in this context includes goods, materials, and people. This dual scope — covering both inanimate loads and human beings — dictates which inspection regime applies and how frequently thorough examinations must be conducted.

The definition is deliberately wide-ranging. It covers:

• Fixed and mobile equipment
• Temporary and permanent installations
• Mechanically powered and manually operated devices
• New, refurbished, and legacy equipment alike

The “at work” requirement

LOLER applies to equipment provided for or used “at work.” Equipment used exclusively in a private domestic context (such as a homeowner’s personal stairlift) falls outside the scope. However, the moment the equipment is used in connection with a trade, business, or undertaking, LOLER is fully engaged.

This is relevant in mixed environments such as:

• A stairlift installed in a residential home for a carer to use when attending clients (LOLER applies)
• A private passenger lift in a domestic home where a live-in employee uses it in the course of work (LOLER applies)
• A stairlift installed purely for a homeowner’s personal use, where no employee uses it (LOLER does not apply)

Categories of lifting equipment

While the legal definition is broad, it helps to group lifting equipment into practical categories to understand the inspection requirements that apply:

1. Equipment used to lift or carry people

This is the highest-risk category under LOLER. It triggers the most stringent statutory requirements, mandating a thorough examination every six months:

• Passenger lifts and elevators in commercial and residential buildings
• Platform lifts and wheelchair access lifts (DDA access)
• Stairlifts (where used at work)
• Evacuation lifts (BS EN 81-76) and firefighting lifts (BS EN 81-72)
• Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (MEWPs) including scissor lifts, cherry pickers, and boom lifts
• Patient hoists and bariatric hoists
• Telehandlers with personnel baskets
• Scaffold hoists used to carry personnel

2. Equipment used to lift loads only

Equipment in this category requires thorough examination at least every 12 months:

• Goods lifts and service lifts
• Dumbwaiters, document lifts, and food lifts
• Overhead travelling cranes, gantry cranes, and jib cranes
• Mobile cranes and loader cranes (hiabs)
• Tower cranes on construction sites
• Vehicle inspection pit lifts and vehicle hoists
• Telehandlers and forklifts (in their primary lifting function)
• Dock levellers and loading platforms
• Chain hoists, lever hoists, and air hoists
• Electric and pneumatic winches

3. Lifting accessories

LOLER also strictly applies to lifting accessories — the components that connect the load to the lifting equipment. These must be thoroughly examined every 6 months, regardless of whether the main equipment they attach to is on a 12-month cycle.

Common lifting accessories include:

• Slings — webbing, round, wire rope, and chain
• Shackles — bow, dee, and screw-pin
• Eyebolts and eye nuts
• Spreader beams and lifting beams
• Chain blocks and lever hoists used as rigging
• Hooks, swivels, and load connectors
• Clamps — plate, beam, and drum
• Vacuum lifters and magnetic lifters
• Lifting chains and chain slings

4. Fall protection used with MEWPs

Harnesses, lanyards, energy absorbers, and anchor points used with MEWPs or other elevating work equipment are classified as lifting accessories in their own right. They must be examined every 6 months and before every use.

When does an item become lifting equipment?

A common source of confusion arises when a piece of machinery has a lifting function as just one capability among several.

Telehandlers and rough-terrain forklifts, for example, are primarily material-handling vehicles. However, when used to raise loads — or people in attachment baskets — their lifting function definitively engages LOLER. The test is entirely functional: if, during a given task, the equipment is deployed to lift or lower a load, LOLER applies to that specific operation and its subsequent inspection requirements.

Other grey-area examples:

• Excavators with quick-hitches — if used for any lifting operation (pipes, kerbs, drainage channels), LOLER applies
• Skid-steer loaders with lifting attachments — LOLER applies to the lifting attachment
• Forklifts with man-cages — when used to lift personnel, the 6-month interval applies

The practical rule: if the equipment lifts at any point during work activity, it is lifting equipment under LOLER for that use.

What is NOT lifting equipment under LOLER?

Several types of equipment are commonly mistaken for LOLER equipment but actually fall under different or narrower regimes:

• Conveyor belts — horizontal movement, not lifting (PUWER applies)
• Escalators and travelators — covered by BS EN 115 standards, not LOLER
• Forklifts carrying loads horizontally only — PUWER applies when the lifting function is not in use
• Pallet trucks (manual, non-elevating) — PUWER applies, not LOLER
• Trailer winches used for towing — pulling rather than lifting

These still require safe maintenance and suitable inspection under PUWER 1998, but the LOLER regime does not apply.

The duty to maintain a register

While LOLER does not explicitly use the word “register,” Regulation 11 requires duty holders to keep records of all thorough examinations safely. Consequently, the HSE Approved Code of Practice (L113) strongly recommends maintaining a comprehensive asset register of all lifting equipment on-site.

A typical LOLER register captures:

• Unique identification for each item (serial number, asset ID)
• Type of equipment and manufacturer
• Location on site
• Safe Working Load (SWL)
• Date of last thorough examination
• Date next thorough examination is due
• Reports retained on file and their retention date

For multi-site operators, digital asset management systems make this substantially easier to maintain and audit.

Why correctly identifying equipment matters

Misclassifying — or missing — a piece of lifting equipment has serious consequences:

• Enforcement risk — HSE inspectors conducting unannounced visits will ask to see the register and can issue Improvement or Prohibition Notices for missing records
• Insurance invalidation — commercial insurance policies typically require LOLER compliance as a condition
• Criminal liability — operating unexamined lifting equipment is a breach of statutory duty under LOLER 1998, punishable by unlimited fines
• Civil liability — in the event of an incident, unexamined equipment is often the first item the claimant’s legal team will scrutinise

The safest approach for any duty holder is: if in doubt, treat the equipment as LOLER-applicable and have it thoroughly examined by a competent person.

Related services

We carry out LOLER thorough examinations across every category of lifting equipment:

• Lifting equipment inspections — hoists, slings, dock levellers, accessories
• Crane inspections — tower, mobile, overhead, jib and loader cranes
• Passenger and goods lift inspections — building lifts
• Work at height equipment inspections — MEWPs, access platforms, scaffold hoists
• Mobile plant inspections — forklifts, telehandlers, excavators
• Firefighting and evacuation lift inspections

For context on the examination itself, see our guide on what a thorough examination involves or the LOLER inspection checklist. To understand how LOLER interacts with PUWER, read LOLER vs PUWER: key differences.