LOLER & thorough examination, explained properly

LOLER is the regulation that catches a lot of building owners out, and it is frequently confused with routine servicing. This guide explains, in plain terms, what the law actually requires for lifts.

This is general guidance for context, not legal advice. Always work from the current HSE guidance and a competent person’s assessment for any specific lift.

What LOLER is

LOLER stands for the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. It sits alongside PUWER (the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) and is enforced by the HSE. For lifts, the headline requirement is that lifting equipment used at work is:

• Strong and stable enough for the loads, and properly installed, and
• Subject to thorough examination at the intervals the law requires, by a competent person.

If a lift is provided for use by people at work — which covers almost every commercial, residential-block and public-building lift — LOLER applies.

Thorough examination vs maintenance

This is the distinction that matters most:

	Maintenance / service	Thorough examination
Purpose	Keep the lift running reliably	Independently verify it is safe to use
Who	The maintenance contractor	A competent person, independent of day-to-day maintenance
Analogy	Regular car servicing	The MOT

You need both. A serviced lift can still be unsafe; the thorough examination is the independent check.

How often is a thorough examination needed?

The general rule for the maximum interval is:

• Every 6 months for lifts that carry people (passenger and passenger/goods lifts), and
• Every 12 months for lifts that carry loads only (goods lifts),

unless there is a written examination scheme drawn up by a competent person specifying different intervals. The competent person can set a scheme based on the equipment, its use and condition.

Examinations are also required after substantial or safety-critical changes — for example a major modernisation, or after an event that may have affected the lift’s safety.

Who is the “competent person”?

The competent person must have the practical and theoretical knowledge and experience to spot defects and assess their significance — and, crucially, be sufficiently independent and impartial. In practice this is usually an engineer surveyor from an inspection body or insurer, separate from the firm doing the routine maintenance, so there is no conflict of interest.

What the duty holder must do

If you control the lift (owner, managing agent or responsible employer), you must:

1. Ensure thorough examinations happen at the right intervals (or per the examination scheme).
2. Keep the lift maintained so it is safe between examinations.
3. Act on reports. If a report identifies a defect that is or could become a danger, you must address it — and serious defects must be reported to the enforcing authority.
4. Keep records of examinations and make them available.

What happens if a defect is found

Reports classify defects by urgency. A defect presenting an existing or imminent danger can mean the lift must be taken out of use until it is fixed, and the competent person has a duty to report it to the HSE. Less urgent defects come with a timescale to repair.

Why it matters

Lifts are safety-critical equipment that the public uses without a second thought. LOLER is what keeps that trust well founded. For engineers, understanding it is part of the job; for building owners, getting it wrong risks both safety and prosecution.

For the engineering side of how lifts are built to be safe in the first place, the relevant construction standards are BS EN 81-20 and 81-50 — the current European standards for the design and installation of new lifts.