PSSR Inspection Cost

Most PSSR providers won't talk openly about pricing. We will — not because we publish a price list (no honest provider can; every pressure system is different) but because knowing what affects the cost helps you make a better decision. This guide explains how reputable inspection firms quote PSSR work, what the cost is actually made of, and where less-careful providers hide the real number.

By the end of the page you should be able to read any PSSR quote, ask the right follow-up questions, and tell the difference between a competitive proposal and a tick-box exercise that won't survive scrutiny from the HSE or your insurer. If you'd rather skip the theory and get a quote against your actual equipment, the quote form is here.

Why we don't publish a PSSR inspection price list

The short answer is that publishing one would be misleading. The longer answer is that the variables genuinely matter:

• A single workshop air receiver, a multi-vessel compressed-air ring main feeding a manufacturing line, and a steam boiler plant are all "pressure systems" under PSSR 2000 — but the examination time and competence requirements are not comparable. Same regulation; very different work.
• A rooftop plantroom with a permit-to-work system, isolation requirements, and a vertical ladder ascent takes longer to attend than a ground-floor compressor room you walk straight into.
• An ageing pressure vessel with twenty years of accumulated corrosion, scale, and modification history takes longer to examine properly than a new vessel still under its commissioning paperwork.
• The Written Scheme of Examination determines what gets examined — a properly drafted WSE on a complex system may require examination of multiple components, safety devices, pipework, and pressure relief systems beyond the headline vessel. A broader WSE means more examination time.
• The 250 bar-litre threshold for installed compressors means small systems may not require a full WSE at all — they need a Regulation 5 assessment but a different (and shorter) piece of work.

A published price list either has to be high enough to cover the hardest jobs (in which case anyone with a simple installation is being over-quoted) or low enough to win clicks for the easy jobs (in which case the published number doesn't apply to most real sites). The Tier-1 inspection nationals don't publish PSSR prices for the same structural reason — but we'd rather explain that openly than leave the impression pricing is a secret. The discussion is the value; the figure has to come from the actual job.

Written Scheme of Examination: separate from the periodic examination cost

PSSR cost is made up of two distinct pieces of work, and confusing them is the single most common source of quote-to-quote misunderstanding in the market. The Regulations themselves draw the distinction:

• Regulation 8 — the Written Scheme of Examination. A one-off drafting cost when a system is first put into service, or a review cost when an inherited WSE needs updating. The WSE is a technical document — it identifies every part of the system whose failure could cause danger, the conditions of examination, and the intervals at which each part is examined. Drafting it requires a competent person to survey the actual installation. It is not the same as the periodic examination, and it is not a free add-on to it.
• Regulation 9 — the periodic thorough examination. The recurring cost on the interval the WSE specifies. Each examination is itself a separate piece of work — the engineer examines the parts the WSE lists, in the conditions the WSE specifies, and issues a report under Regulation 9.

Some providers quote "PSSR inspection" without making clear whether a WSE is included, assumed, or absent. The result is that buyers compare a quote that includes WSE drafting against a quote that doesn't, conclude one is cheaper, and discover at the recall visit that the WSE work was never done. Always confirm — on every quote you receive — whether the WSE is included, separately quoted, or assumed already to exist. The factors that affect WSE drafting cost are largely the same as those affecting examination cost (system complexity, item count, access, condition of records) but the work is structurally separate.

For more detail on WSE structure, scope, and what a properly drafted scheme covers see our Written Schemes of Examination service page.

What affects the cost of a PSSR thorough examination

Here's what's actually in the calculation when a competent person quotes PSSR work. Each factor moves the headline up or down — sometimes substantially.

Pressure system type and complexity

A single workshop air receiver, a multi-vessel compressed-air ring main, an autoclave fleet in a sterilisation suite, a process steam plant, and an espresso boiler in a hospitality kitchen are all "pressure systems" under PSSR. But the examination work each requires is not comparable. An air receiver examination involves internal and external inspection, safety valve testing, and pressure gauge checks; a steam boiler examination is a meaningfully larger piece of work; a multi-vessel ring main multiplies that work across each vessel and the interconnecting pipework. A competent provider quotes against the actual system, not a category label.

Complexity also depends on the standards involved. Process pressure vessels operating under specific industry codes (chemical, pharmaceutical, food production) may attract additional examination requirements beyond the PSSR baseline. The WSE captures these specifics — which is why the WSE is the authoritative document for what a given system's examination involves.

Written Scheme of Examination scope

A WSE on a single air receiver might run to two or three pages and cover one vessel, its safety valve, gauge, and immediate pipework. A WSE on a multi-vessel compressed-air installation feeding a manufacturing line might cover a dozen vessels, multiple safety devices, hundreds of metres of pipework, and several pressure-reduction stations. The examination time scales accordingly. When you receive a PSSR quote, the underlying assumption about WSE scope is the single biggest driver of the figure — ask what the WSE covers, or send us the existing scheme so we can quote against it directly.

Whether a Written Scheme already exists or needs to be drafted

New sites — equipment commissioning, building purchases, tenant changes — frequently need the WSE drafted from scratch. That is a survey-and-drafting exercise on top of the examination itself, and it is paid for separately. Existing sites with a WSE in place need only the periodic examination, but the WSE should be reviewed at each examination cycle anyway — and material changes to the system (new vessels, altered pipework, changed operating conditions) trigger a WSE update under Regulation 8. We quote WSE drafting and review separately from the periodic examination so the breakdown is visible.

System age and condition

Older pressure systems take longer to examine thoroughly. Decades of operation produce a wider range of conditions to assess — accumulated corrosion, scale build-up, modifications made by different contractors over time, missing original documentation, replacement parts of varying quality. An engineer who tries to examine an ageing vessel in the same time as a new one isn't doing the job properly. Reputable providers quote more time for older equipment; cheap providers don't, which is one reason their reports are worth less.

A duty holder taking on responsibility for unfamiliar equipment — a building purchase, a tenant change, an acquired site — almost always pays slightly more for the first examination because the engineer is establishing the baseline. Subsequent examinations are typically faster because the documentation, photographs, and known patterns from the first visit accelerate the work.

Number of pressure systems on site

Per-vessel costs fall as the number of items examined on a single visit rises. The engineer's travel, parking, site induction, and setup time is the same whether they examine one air receiver or ten — so a single workshop receiver examined in isolation costs more per item than the same receiver examined alongside other PSSR equipment on the same visit. The implication for buyers: if you have multiple pressure systems on a site, quote them all together rather than ad-hoc.

Access and site conditions

Access often dwarfs every other factor on PSSR work. A boiler in a basement plantroom with confined-space entry requirements is a different job from a workshop air receiver at ground level. Rooftop plantrooms, isolation requirements, lockout-tagout coordination, and live operational areas all add time the engineer must be paid for. Internal examination on a pressure vessel may also require the system to be cooled, depressurised, and isolated — coordination with the site operator is part of the cost.

The most common reason a low headline PSSR quote later balloons is that the original provider didn't ask about access. By the time the engineer arrives, the scope has changed; the variation gets added to the next invoice. A competent provider asks the access questions up front so the quote stays firm.

Travel and location

A PSSR inspection provider near your site has a structural cost advantage. Travel time, fuel, and vehicle costs all flow into the quote one way or another. For sites in our core coverage — Kent, London, Essex, Surrey, Sussex — our engineers travel short distances. For sites further out, particularly nationwide single-visit work, we deliver through our Engineer Surveyor Inspection Network (ESiNet) which keeps travel costs proportionate. Long-distance one-off visits are inherently more expensive per item than dense local clusters; multi-site contracts dampen this effect by averaging travel across many sites.

Scheduling

Many providers add premium rates for evenings, weekends, or bank holidays — sometimes a meaningful multiplier on top of weekday rates. Our position: Saturday daytime examinations are at no additional charge, because many sites prefer those slots to avoid disrupting operational plant. Sunday and weekday-after-6pm visits may carry a premium depending on circumstances (and where it's one we've initiated for routing reasons, no premium applies). Whichever provider you use, ask up front how out-of-hours rates work — the answer can shift a quote comparison significantly.

Multi-site contracts

Centralised PSSR contracts across multiple sites attract better rates than ad-hoc visits, for the same reason quantity matters at a single site: the engineer's time is spread efficiently across more work. Providers quote multi-site PSSR work in various ways — annual values where pressure-system populations are stable, call-off arrangements where they fluctuate, framework agreements with agreed per-item rates — but the underlying logic is the same. The per-item rate should sit below standalone visit rates.

A common gotcha to watch for: providers who quote a low multi-site contract value but then itemise extras (mobilisation fees, report production, certificate issue, portal access, WSE review fees) on top. Always ask whether the contract figure is fully inclusive — and whether WSE drafting on newly acquired sites is inside the contract or charged separately.

Bundling with LOLER and PUWER

A single site visit that covers LOLER, PUWER, and PSSR examinations together is materially cheaper than separate visits. The engineer travels and sets up once; the inductions, parking, and access work happen once. Garages, manufacturing sites, food production facilities, and woodworking shops frequently need all three — bundling them in a single coordinated visit is the most efficient way to handle it. Ask any provider to set out the bundle saving against separate visits so you can compare like-for-like. (Where LEV testing under COSHH also applies on the same site, that's a separate regime EIS doesn't deliver — but scheduling it in the same compliance window as LOLER, PUWER, and PSSR keeps operational disruption to one window.)

Hidden costs and pricing traps to avoid

The headline number is not the cost. The following patterns are common in the PSSR market and are worth scrutinising in any quote you receive:

• "PSSR inspection" without specifying the WSE. A provider who quotes for "PSSR inspection" without telling you whether a Written Scheme is included, assumed, or absent has left the most important variable off the page. Always ask explicitly whether the WSE is included, separately quoted, or assumed already to exist — and what happens if it turns out an inherited WSE is inadequate.
• Maintenance-tied "free" inspections. A compressor or boiler maintenance contractor offering to "throw the PSSR examination in" is offering a structural conflict of interest. Their commercial incentive is to certify the equipment they service as compliant — exactly the relationship the HSE expects to be separated under PSSR. A "free" examination from the maintenance contractor is worth what you paid for it. See why independence matters for the regulatory background.
• Insurance-tied surveyors. Some PSSR examinations come bundled with an insurance policy and are carried out by surveyors whose volume targets reward fast tick-box visits against the existing WSE. The examination is technically delivered, but the engagement with system condition — the actual safety value of the work — is heavily diluted.
• Add-ons for the report. Some providers itemise the digital report, photographs, certificate copies, and portal access as separate line items on top of the headline examination fee. Read the quote carefully — what looks like a substantial saving on the examination figure can disappear into reporting add-ons.
• Cheap examinations that take twenty minutes. A multi-vessel pressure system examined properly cannot be done in twenty minutes. If a provider's pricing only works because the engineer is on site for a fraction of the time the work requires, the report isn't a thorough examination — it's a piece of paper that won't survive HSE or insurer scrutiny.
• WSE review treated as free. Reviewing an inherited WSE to confirm it still reflects the actual installation is real work — a competent person has to survey the system and compare it to the document. Providers who promise to "review the WSE for free" are typically not really doing it; the review then surfaces as an unbudgeted charge after the examination, or worse, the existing WSE is signed off without being properly reassessed.

Why an independent competent person quote is worth more than a maintenance-bundled price

The independence point is structural, not just cost-related — see why independence matters in statutory inspection for the regulatory background.

PSSR Regulation 8(1) requires the WSE to be drawn up "by a competent person." Regulation 9(1) requires the examination to be carried out "by a competent person." HSE L122 (the Approved Code of Practice supporting PSSR) makes clear that the same competent person should not be carrying out routine maintenance on the equipment they're examining. The reason is structural: a contractor who services your compressor or boiler every quarter has a commercial incentive to certify the equipment they service as compliant. An independent surveyor doesn't.

A maintenance-bundled PSSR price often looks cheaper than an independent quote — but the saving comes from removing the only thing that makes the examination useful. A real quote from an independent competent person is genuinely customised to your site: they've thought about the WSE scope, the access, the system age, the item count, the reporting requirements, and what bundling makes sense. A maintenance-bundled price is a marketing device — it bolts compliance onto a contract you were already paying for, but it doesn't reflect the actual examination work the Regulations expect.

What's included in our PSSR inspection quotes

Our PSSR quotes are structured around the same principles as our LOLER pricing, adapted to the specific structure of PSSR work:

• Itemised by pressure system. Every quote we issue breaks out the examination fee per pressure system, any WSE drafting or review fees, any access or travel adjustments, the reporting format, and any optional extras (LOLER or PUWER bundling, for instance). You can see exactly what you're paying for and compare like-for-like with other providers.
• Per-item rates that reflect volume. For multi-vessel single-site examinations, the per-item rate falls as the number of pressure systems rises — because the engineer's travel, parking, induction, and setup time is spread across more equipment. The volume effect sits inside the per-item rate rather than appearing as a separate discount line. We don't publish specific volume bands because the actual rate depends on system mix, WSE scope, access, and site conditions — the quote is the answer to your specific equipment.
• Fixed annual contracts for multi-site clients. For clients with predictable pressure-system populations across multiple sites, we quote a fixed annual contract value covering the planned examinations across the year. That gives both sides budget certainty and lets engineer time be scheduled efficiently. Equipment additions or removals during the contract are priced at the per-item rate already agreed, not at a higher one-off rate.
• No add-ons for Saturday examinations. Saturday daytime work is at no premium. Sunday and weekday-after-6pm visits may carry a premium depending on circumstances, and any premium is shown upfront on the quote.
• No markup on third-party services. Where a PSSR examination requires coordination with isolation, lockout-tagout, or other contractor services, we don't mark those up. If we're acting as the coordinator we're transparent about it on the quote.
• Digital report and certificate included. A photographic digital report covering the condition of the parts examined, any defects found, recommended remedial action, and the next examination date is part of the examination fee — not a bolt-on. The certificate satisfying Regulation 9 is included.

What our quotes don't include: WSE drafting (quoted separately if needed), repair work (we identify defects under PSSR Regulation 9, but rectification is a separate contractor decision), maintenance contracts (we don't sell them — the separation is what keeps the examination credible), or replacement equipment recommendations.

LOLER and PUWER: bundling pressure system work with lifting equipment inspections

A great many sites have both lifting equipment under LOLER 1998 and pressure systems under PSSR 2000. Garages with vehicle lifts and air receivers. Manufacturing sites with overhead cranes and process steam plant. Hospitals with patient hoists and autoclaves. Hotels with passenger lifts and café boilers. Bundling these examinations on a single site visit is materially cheaper than separate visits — the engineer travels and sets up once, the inductions and access work happen once, and the per-item rate falls because of the volume effect across both regimes.

We quote bundled visits with each regime itemised so you can see the standalone cost of each examination alongside the bundle saving. For deeper context on LOLER cost factors see the LOLER inspection cost guide and the deep-dive on factors that affect LOLER pricing — the same per-item, access, and scheduling logic applies to PSSR.

A note on LEV: where LEV testing under COSHH also applies on the same site (paint booths, woodworking dust extraction, soldering and welding fume systems), that's a separate regulatory regime EIS doesn't deliver — it falls under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, not under PSSR. The HSE's operational guidance for LEV examinations is set out in HSG258. Scheduling LEV testing in the same compliance window as LOLER and PSSR keeps operational disruption to one window, but the testing itself is a separate piece of work commissioned from an LEV specialist.

Warehouse and distribution sites bundle a fourth regime: pallet racking inspection under the HSE's HSG76 guidance and the SEMA Code of Practice. The annual expert inspection sits alongside the air receiver examination, the forklift LOLER work, and the dock leveller LOLER work on a coordinated visit. We provide pallet racking inspection as competent persons under PUWER — the SEMA framework's industry standard with the regulatory baseline behind it.

Sector-specific PSSR cost considerations

The cost factors above apply across the board, but how they show up in the quote varies by sector. Where it's helpful, our sector pages walk the specific patterns:

• Hotels & hospitality — café and espresso machine boilers (the commonly-overlooked PSSR systems in food service), steam ovens, laundry plant; lift examinations on the same visit.
• Hospitals & healthcare — pathology autoclaves, sterilisers, pharmacy and anaesthesia compressed air systems; clinical-window scheduling.
• Warehousing & logistics — compressed air systems feeding pneumatic tooling and packaging lines; multi-site DC contract patterns.
• Construction — site compressors and pneumatic-tool air receivers; coordinating PSSR around active site works.
• Facilities management — multi-regime, multi-site contracts where PSSR is one component of consolidated compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions