LOLER inspection, defined: the checks required by the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 for cranes, hoists, forklifts, vehicle lifts, MEWPs and lifting accessories used at work in Great Britain.
A LOLER inspection is any check carried out on lifting equipment to satisfy the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, the law that applies to lifting equipment provided for use at work. On site the phrase means two different duties: the thorough examination by a competent person at set intervals, and the pre-use check the operator does before each shift or lift.
The distinction matters because only one of those satisfies the statutory duty. A workshop that runs daily operator checks on its vehicle lifts but has no thorough examination report on file is not compliant, and an HSE inspector will ask for the report, not the checklists.
What LOLER 1998 actually requires
LOLER sits on top of PUWER, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and adds duties specific to lifting. The employer, or whoever controls the equipment, must make sure that:
- lifting equipment is strong and stable enough for the load and marked with its safe working load (Regulations 4 to 7);
- every lifting operation is planned by a competent person, supervised and carried out safely (Regulation 8);
- equipment is thoroughly examined before first use where its safety depends on installation, then at set intervals or under a written scheme, with inspection between examinations where the risk assessment calls for it (Regulation 9);
- the competent person issues a written report and notifies the enforcing authority where a defect poses an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury (Regulation 10);
- the reports are kept available for inspection (Regulation 11).
Thorough examination versus the user's pre-use check
A thorough examination is a systematic and detailed examination by a competent person: someone with enough practical and theoretical knowledge of the equipment to detect defects and judge how serious they are. In practice this is usually an engineer surveyor from an inspection body or the insurer, independent of the people who use and maintain the equipment. The output is a written report in the format set out in Schedule 1 of the regulations.
A pre-use check is what the operator does. For a forklift that is the daily walk round: forks, chains, tyres, mast, horn, brakes, hydraulics. No report is issued; the check goes on a sheet, and a defect takes the item out of service until someone competent has looked at it. The pre-use check catches damage between examinations. It never replaces the examination.
LOLER inspection intervals: 6 months or 12 months
Regulation 9(3) sets the default intervals where there is no written scheme of examination:
- Every 6 months for lifting equipment used to lift persons (passenger lifts, MEWPs, man-riding hoists) and for all lifting accessories (slings, chains, shackles, eyebolts, spreader beams).
- Every 12 months for all other lifting equipment (cranes, forklift trucks, vehicle lifts, goods hoists, lifting beams).
- After exceptional circumstances that could affect safety, such as an overload, a collision, a long period out of use or a major repair.
A competent person can draw up a written scheme of examination that sets different intervals, based on the risk and duty of the equipment. That scheme replaces the defaults for the equipment it covers. Without a scheme, the 6 and 12 month periods apply as written.
LOLER inspection example: a two-post vehicle lift
An independent garage runs three two-post lifts. The technician's weekly sheet covers the arm locks, the lifting pads and the cables. On one lift the sheet records that an arm lock no longer clicks in at the second position. The lift is taken out of service and tagged, and the engineer surveyor is asked to attend early rather than at the 12 month due date.
The surveyor's thorough examination confirms worn locking gear, classes it as a defect that could become a danger, and states in the report that the lift must not be used until repaired. After the repair the surveyor re-examines the lift and issues a fresh report. The weekly sheet found the fault; the report proves the lift was fit to go back into use.
What a LOLER inspection does not do, and the mistakes teams make
The report is not a certificate of safety for the period ahead. It records the condition of the equipment on the day it was examined. Nor is a thorough examination a service: the examiner assesses, they do not repair, and a service visit does not discharge the Regulation 9 duty.
The recurring mistakes: treating the operator's sheet as the LOLER record; letting accessories drift onto a 12 month cycle because the crane is on one; keeping the report in the surveyor's portal and nothing on site; skipping the examination after a collision; and having no asset register, so slings and shackles are bought, used and never examined.
Where the report and the evidence go
Regulation 11 sets the retention: a periodic examination report is kept until the next report is made or for two years, whichever is later; a first-use report for as long as the equipment is used at that place; an accessory report for two years. Pre-use checks are not statutory records in the same sense, but keeping them supports the risk assessment. The neighbouring terms thorough examination, PUWER inspection and statutory inspection cover each part of this in more depth, and inspection interval explains how intervals are tracked.
Remote capture has an honest but limited role here. The examination itself must be done in person by the competent person. What can be sent remotely is the operator's evidence: the completed pre-start check, photos of the defect, or a photo of the report and data plate for the register. With Venta Capture, a product of VentaVid, the operator is sent a link, follows guided steps in the mobile browser with no app, and the submission arrives timestamped and sealed for review. See the Venta Capture pages.
In practice: see how field service teams use Venta Capture.