PUWER

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998

The regulations covering all work equipment: suitability, maintenance, inspection, information and training, guarding, controls and stability.

PUWER covers every piece of equipment used at work, from a hammer to a piling rig: it must be suitable for the task and the conditions, maintained in an efficient state and good repair (with a maintenance log where one is kept), inspected where its safety depends on installation or it is exposed to conditions causing deterioration, and used only by people who have received adequate information, instruction and training. The regulations also require guarding of dangerous parts, protection against specific hazards, controls that are clearly identifiable and stop safely, isolation from energy sources, stability, lighting and markings.

For mobile plant, PUWER adds rollover protection, restraint systems, safe carriage of people, and the requirement that self-propelled equipment be driven only by trained people. The daily pre-use check is how PUWER regulation 6 shows up on site: the operator's look at fluids, guards, controls, tyres or tracks, lights and damage before the key turns, recorded and signed. LOLER sits alongside PUWER for lifting equipment; PUWER still applies to it.

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