How a thorough examination works
Our method, end to end
A thorough examination is a systematic inspection of work equipment by a competent person, carried out at an interval fixed by law, ending in a written report that you are legally required to keep. It is not a service, not maintenance, and not a visual walkaround.
This page sets out what we actually do: how we quote, how the visit is scheduled, what happens on site, how a defect is graded, what the report must contain by law, and what we deliberately do not do. If you are choosing between inspection providers, these are the things worth comparing.
The five stages, in order
You tell us what you have, and we quote against it
We quote from your equipment list, not from a price list. What we need is the equipment type and count, the site address, and anything that affects access. Quotes are itemised per item, with per-item rates banded by volume, so you can see what each machine costs to examine rather than a single figure with no breakdown. For clients with a stable equipment population across several sites we quote a fixed annual contract instead. We take no markup on third-party services.
We schedule the visit around your operation
Equipment being examined is equipment not working, so the appointment is planned around when you can release it. Saturday attendance carries no additional charge. Evening and Sunday slots can be arranged and carry a premium, which is shown on the quote before you accept it rather than appearing afterwards. Multi-site clients get a single coordinated programme and one point of contact rather than site-by-site booking.
An engineer surveyor attends and examines the equipment on site
Plant, lifts and installed equipment are examined in place. There is no need to release machines for off-site inspection. The engineer surveyor works to the scope LOLER Regulation 9 sets for the equipment class, or to the written scheme of examination where one governs the item, and records what is found regardless of whether it affects the pass decision.
We report the outcome, and grade any defect
You get a written report of thorough examination, dated and signed by the competent person, issued digitally with photographs of anything that needs to be seen rather than described. Reports are available through a password-protected portal so they can be retrieved during an HSE visit or an insurance query without going through us. A sample report is available on request before you commit to anything.
Acting on the report is yours, and we say so
The examination tells you the condition of the equipment. It does not fix it, and we do not fix it, because the same hands cannot both repair and certify. Where a defect needs work, you commission that separately, and we re-examine afterwards where the defect required withdrawal from service.
How we grade a defect
The grade is what determines whether your equipment can stay in use, so it matters more than any other line in the report. LOLER Regulation 10 sets the two statutory categories; the third is a reporting convention rather than a legal one, and we label it as such.
| Grade | What happens | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury | Reported to you immediately. The equipment must be withdrawn from service until the defect is put right, and a copy of the report goes to the relevant enforcing authority. | LOLER Regulation 10 |
| A defect that is not yet serious but will become so | Recorded with a timescale by which the repair must be completed. The equipment can usually stay in service inside that window. | LOLER Regulation 10 |
| Observation | Recorded but requires no action now. These are the items that become time-bound defects at a later examination if nothing changes, which is why they are worth reading. | Good practice, not a statutory category |
We record everything found regardless of grade. A report that lists only the failures tells you nothing about what was actually looked at, and it gives you no baseline to compare against at the next examination.
What the report must contain
Schedule 1 to LOLER sets the particulars. These are not optional and they are not a house style, so any provider's report should carry all of them:
- The equipment examined and how it is identified
- Its safe working load
- The date of this examination and of the previous one
- Any defect found, and whether it involves a risk to people
- Whether the equipment is safe to operate
- The date by which the next thorough examination must be carried out
- The name and signature of the competent person, and the date of the report
We issue ours digitally, with photographs of anything that is easier to see than to read about, and hold them in a password-protected portal so you can retrieve one during an HSE visit without waiting on us. Under LOLER Regulation 11 the duty to keep the report available is yours.
What we do not do
Stating this plainly is more useful than a capability list, because the gaps are where a provider either quietly subcontracts or quietly stretches.
- We do not maintain, repair or service equipment. Not as an upsell, not through a sister company. This is the whole basis of the independence that makes the report worth anything. See why independence matters.
- We do not sell or hire equipment, and we take no markup on third-party services we point you towards.
- We do not carry out LEV testing under COSHH Regulation 9. We publish a duty-holder guide to it because clients ask, and we refer the work elsewhere.
- We are not your insurer or your broker, and we are not tied to an insurance product. An engineering insurance policy that requires "thorough examination by a competent person" is satisfied by this work; the report is not conditional on where you insure.
- We do not give legal advice. We tell you what the regulation requires of the equipment. Whether you are the duty holder for a given item, particularly in a managed building with several parties, can turn on your contracts.
Who this suits, and who it does not
This works well if you hold the duty for equipment and want the examination separated from whoever maintains it: property managers and managing agents, care and healthcare operators, FM providers, construction and warehousing operators, and workshops. It works particularly well across multiple sites, where consistent reporting matters more than the cost of any single visit.
It suits you less well if what you actually want is one supplier who maintains the equipment and certifies it in the same visit. Some organisations do prefer that, and there are national providers who offer it. We are not one of them, and we would rather say so here than at the quoting stage. If you want the single-supplier model, the thing to check is how that provider keeps the examination judgement separate from the maintenance relationship, because HSE guidance L113 expects that separation to exist somehow.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a thorough examination take?
It depends entirely on the equipment and the access. A single workshop hoist is quick; a passenger lift, a tower crane, or a fleet of plant on a live site is not. We give an expected duration with the quote so you can plan the downtime, because the time the equipment is out of use usually costs more than the examination does.
Do you need the equipment taken out of service during the examination?
Yes, for the duration of the examination itself. The equipment cannot be in productive use while it is being examined. That is why the appointment is scheduled around your operation rather than ours, and why Saturday attendance carries no additional charge.
What happens if the equipment fails?
Equipment does not pass or fail in a binary sense. The report records the condition found and grades any defect. Where the competent person identifies an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury, the equipment must come out of service immediately, you are told at once, and a copy of the report goes to the enforcing authority under LOLER Regulation 10. Less urgent defects come with a deadline for repair.
Can you repair a defect you find?
No, and that is deliberate rather than a limitation. A competent person carrying out a thorough examination should be practically independent of any maintenance arrangement for the same equipment, which is what HSE guidance L113 sets out. We do not sell maintenance, repairs, parts or equipment, so there is nothing for us to gain from either passing or failing an item. You commission the repair separately and we re-examine afterwards where the defect required withdrawal from service.
Can I see a report before I commit?
Yes. A sample report is available on request. It is a reasonable thing to ask any provider for, and comparing sample reports tells you more about what you are buying than comparing prices does.
Who keeps the report, and for how long?
You do. LOLER Regulation 11 makes keeping the report the duty holder’s responsibility, and it must be available for inspection. How long depends on which examination produced it. For the routine periodic examination under Regulation 9(3), which is the one almost everyone is dealing with, you keep it until the next report or for two years, whichever is later. A before-first-use report on lifting equipment is kept until you stop using that equipment, and an installation report until you stop using it in that place. We issue reports digitally and keep them retrievable through the portal, but the legal obligation to hold them sits with you, not with us.
Ask for a quote, or ask for a sample report
Send the equipment list and the site address and we will quote against your actual items. If you want to see what the report looks like first, ask for the sample.
Request a quote