PUWER Risk Assessments For Work Equipment Across The UK
Work Equipment Risk Assessments
Most people land on this page because something has already happened. An inspector asked to see the assessment and nobody could find one. A machine arrived second-hand with no paperwork. Someone took a guard off to speed up a changeover and it never went back on.
A PUWER risk assessment checks your work equipment against the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, item by item, and tells you exactly where it falls short and what has to change. We carry these out across the UK.
We sell inspections and assessments only. No guarding, no interlocks, no parts, no maintenance contracts. Nothing we find on your site turns into a quote for us, which is the whole point of asking someone independent to look.
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Tell us what equipment you have and where the site is. We aim to come back with a quote within 48 hours.
PUWER Risk Assessments For Work Equipment Across The UK
Work Equipment Risk Assessments
Most people land on this page because something has already happened. An inspector asked to see the assessment and nobody could find one. A machine arrived second-hand with no paperwork. Someone took a guard off to speed up a changeover and it never went back on.
A PUWER risk assessment checks your work equipment against the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, item by item, and tells you exactly where it falls short and what has to change. We carry these out across the UK.
We sell inspections and assessments only. No guarding, no interlocks, no parts, no maintenance contracts. Nothing we find on your site turns into a quote for us, which is the whole point of asking someone independent to look.
Assessment, Inspection Or Thorough Examination: Which Do You Actually Need?
Three different things get called by each other’s names in this market, and briefing the wrong one wastes a site visit.
A PUWER risk assessment is a conformity assessment. An assessor works through a machine against the requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and records every point where it does not meet them: a missing interlock, an emergency stop that stops motion but does not isolate stored energy, no lockable isolator for maintenance, controls that are not marked, a guard that has been defeated. What you get back is a written finding against each criterion, graded, with the control measures needed to close it.
A PUWER inspection is the periodic in-service check under Regulation 6, required where equipment is exposed to conditions that cause it to deteriorate. It looks for wear and damage on equipment already established as suitable, and the result is a record, not a certificate. That is a separate service, covered on our periodic PUWER inspections page.
A thorough examination is a term with a specific legal meaning and it is the one most often misused. Under LOLER it applies to lifting equipment. Within PUWER it applies to power presses working cold metal and to nothing else, under Regulations 32 to 35. If a provider offers a PUWER thorough examination on a bandsaw, they are guessing.
CE or UKCA marking does not answer any of these questions, and modification can undo it entirely. A mark on the plate records that the manufacturer declared conformity for the use they intended. Weld a new frame onto a machine, put it on a track, add handrails, integrate it with a second machine, and the original Declaration of Conformity can no longer be relied on. Where modification is substantial the machine has to be treated as new or re-manufactured, assessed against the relevant Essential Health and Safety Requirements, and re-marked. That finding is the most common high-risk item we record, and it almost always sits on a machine everybody assumed was compliant because it came with a CE plate.
What Triggers A PUWER Assessment
PUWER sets no calendar for assessments. Regulation 6 ties periodic inspection to risk rather than to a fixed interval, and the only hard statutory cycle anywhere in PUWER belongs to power presses. That does not mean there is no interval. It means somebody has to derive one from the actual risk, and that derivation is part of what the assessment gives you.
These are the situations that put an assessment on the agenda, in roughly the order we see them:
- Modified equipment. A guard removed for a changeover and never refitted, a welded frame or track system added, two machines integrated into one line, handrails fitted to something never designed to carry people, a control retrofitted by a local engineer. Undocumented modification is the single most common reason an assessment is needed and the most common source of high-risk findings.
- Second-hand or auction machinery. Bought without a manual, a Declaration of Conformity or any history. Nobody knows what has been altered, and often the data plate no longer describes the machine in front of you.
- An enforcement visit. An HSE or local authority inspector has asked to see the assessment, or an improvement notice has landed with a date on it.
- Relocation. Equipment moved between sites or repositioned, which changes access, isolation and stability.
- An insurer or customer audit. A supplier assessment or an insurer’s survey has asked for evidence you do not currently hold.
- A near miss or an injury. Something went wrong and the immediate question is whether the machine was compliant.
- Acquisition or new tenancy. You have inherited a plant list you did not specify and cannot vouch for.
- New equipment before first use. Regulation 6 requires inspection after installation where safety depends on the installation conditions, and marked machinery still has to be right for your task.
If none of these apply and your equipment has been assessed before, what you probably need is periodic inspection rather than a fresh assessment. We will say so.
What Our Assessors Keep Finding
Assessments across enough sites and the same non-conformities come round again. Very few are exotic. Most are the residue of a production problem someone solved at the time and nobody wrote down. Grouped by where they turn up:
The most frequent high-risk finding by some distance. Welded frames, track systems, extended platforms, handrails added to equipment never designed to carry people, two machines integrated into one line. Each change is sensible in isolation and nobody records any of it. The consequences stack up: the safe working load on the data plate no longer describes the machine, structural integrity of the modification is unverified, no anti-trap or edge protection has been fitted to the new sections, and the original Declaration of Conformity can no longer be relied on. Where the modification is substantial the machine has to be treated as new or re-manufactured and assessed against the Essential Health and Safety Requirements before it can be marked again.
Regulation 11 findings are the volume item. Fixed guards held on with the wrong fasteners, or with fasteners missing so the guard lifts by hand. Interlocked guards taped, wedged or bypassed with a spare actuator kept in the operator drawer. Drive motors and belt assemblies left completely unguarded at the rear of a machine where nobody looks. Rotating drives reachable through an orifice in a housing. Guards fitted for the original feed method and never adapted when the job changed. Trapping points created by two individually compliant machines set close together on a line.
Emergency stops that are damaged, loose, or that remove drive but leave stored energy in a hydraulic accumulator, a raised platen or a loaded spring. Stops that halt one machine but not the conveyor or process feeding it, which is a scope question worth confirming rather than assuming. Under Regulation 19 the recurring gaps are no lockable isolator at all, a control panel that can be opened while live, and no documented way of discharging and locking off a hydraulic or pneumatic system before maintenance.
Control panels positioned so they need a ladder to reach, or sited at an exposed edge with no safety gate. Controls close enough to a walkway that an inadvertent knock moves the machine. Hand-written labelling on a panel that has been rebuilt. Panels left unsecured so anyone can operate them. Automated equipment that starts with no audible or visual pre-start warning to people working nearby. Traverse and extend or retract controls that do not return to neutral or are not hold-to-run.
Frequently the whole of the management systems section comes back unsatisfactory on otherwise sound machinery. No maintenance records at all, so it cannot be confirmed the equipment is being kept safe. No inspection documentation, because Regulation 5 maintenance and Regulation 6 inspection are separate duties and a combined service log evidences only the first. No safe operating procedures available to the operator at the workstation, even where they exist somewhere on file. A training matrix that records competence in the process but never names the specific machine.
Assessments regularly surface duties outside PUWER. Access platforms and steps that have been modified and rewelded with no verification of structural integrity, inadequate handrails, no toe boards, no safety gate and no harness anchor points. Dust or fume that indicates local exhaust ventilation is needed, or an existing LEV system with no valid thorough examination and test. Pressure systems in use with no confirmed written scheme of examination. Hot surfaces and hot air applied as part of a process with no guarding or segregation. We flag each of these against the regime that owns it rather than stretching PUWER to cover it.
Markings that were accurate when the machine was built and are not now: missing safe working loads, no serial number or unique identification, plates that predate a modification. Warning signage absent at the points that matter, with no indication of the PPE the task requires. And lighting, which sounds trivial until an assessor stands where the operator stands and finds surrounding plant casting shadow across the point of operation.
Findings come back graded by how urgently they need acting on, from equipment that should come out of use now through to items to plan into the next shutdown. Nothing is dressed up: if a machine is fine, the report says so. Because we do not sell guarding, interlocks, safety systems or maintenance, the length of your action plan makes no difference to us.
GSB Inspections Reviews
Client Satisfaction
Great bloke, reliable, informative, pleasure to deal with.
Gary Jackson
Gary has been doing our certifications for the last few years. Very professional and very reliable. A**
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Prompt and professional friendly service.
Apples & Pears Nursery
Great service. Would highly recommend and will use again.
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Excellent service & communications
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Excellent service, very thorough and practical
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Service, communication, support and advice has been excellent, Garry has gone out of his way to support our school with issues arisen from council maintenance, he has gone out of... read more
Miss H Morrey
Been using GSB for a year, great service keeping all our plant and machinery in certification
James Plant
Inspected transferable winch units with, greatly appreciated, additional guidance covering separate requirements for accompanying D shackles and inspection schedule. Very diligent service and great value.
Andrew Piekarczyk
My first contact was with Gary and he dealt with my query and questions brilliantly. He explained the process, it was easy to sort and it went smoothly. Expected contact... read more
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Well what a great service Gary provides, always does a very thorough job, can't recommend enough, we always Gary really great guy.
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Gary has been doing MPi ltd's lifting certifications, air compressor tank and roller shutter door inspections for a number of years now. I have always found him a pleasure to... read more
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What A PUWER Assessment Covers, Criterion By Criterion
An assessment is not a walk round with a clipboard. Every machine is worked through against a fixed set of criteria, each tied to the regulation it comes from, and each one gets a written verdict rather than a tick. The regulations divide into three groups for assessment purposes, delivered through four sections of the report. This is the whole matrix.
1. Design And Installation
- Suitability of equipment (Reg 4) - is the machine right for the task, the place and the people using it, including after any modification.
- Conformity with product legislation (Reg 10) - CE or UKCA marking, the Declaration of Conformity, and whether modification has invalidated either.
- Dangerous parts of machinery (Reg 11) - guarding, interlocks and physical prevention of access to danger zones.
- Protection against specified hazards (Reg 12) - ejected material, ruptures, overheating, fire, and stored energy release.
- High or low temperature (Reg 13) - hot surfaces, hot air and burn risk, guarded or segregated.
- Controls (Regs 14 and 17) - clearly marked, accessible, secured against unauthorised or inadvertent operation, sited away from danger.
- Stop and emergency stop controls (Regs 15 and 16) - accessible, and confirmed to isolate every associated function, not just the machine in front of you.
- Isolation of energy (Reg 19) - lockable isolation from all energy sources, including stored hydraulic and pneumatic energy.
- Stability (Reg 20) - anchorage, load limits and structural integrity, particularly on anything modified or relocated.
2. Management Systems
- Maintenance (Reg 5) - records and evidence that the equipment is being kept in a safe condition.
- Inspection (Reg 6) - a documented inspection regime derived from risk assessment, at defined intervals, by competent persons.
- Specific risks (Reg 7) - authorised persons, training gaps against the actual hazards present, and housekeeping around the machine.
- Information and instructions (Reg 8) - safe operating procedures and manuals available to the operator at the workstation, not filed in an office.
- Training (Reg 9) - a training matrix that names this machine, not just the process it sits in.
- Markings (Reg 23) - identification, safe working load and operating limits, still accurate after modification.
- Warnings (Reg 24) - durable signage at the points of risk, with PPE requirements indicated where they apply.
3. Operating Considerations
- Control systems (Reg 18) - do they allow the equipment to be made safe under adverse or abnormal conditions, and do they fail to a safe state.
- Lighting (Reg 21) - suitable light at the point of operation. Shadow cast by surrounding plant is a recurring finding.
- Maintenance operations (Reg 22) - whether the machine can actually be maintained safely, including safe access and fall protection where work is at height.
4. Mobile Considerations
- Employees carried on mobile equipment (Reg 25)
- Rolling over of mobile work equipment (Reg 26)
- Falling object and restraint protection (Reg 27)
- Self-propelled work equipment (Reg 28)
- Remote-controlled self-propelled equipment (Reg 29)
- Drive shafts (Reg 30) - recorded as not applicable on fixed installations, so the report shows the question was asked.
How The Regulations Group
- Regulations 4 to 10 - management issues - suitability, maintenance, inspection, instruction, training and conformity with product legislation.
- Regulations 11 to 24 - physical aspects - controls, guarding and protection against specific hazards.
- Regulations 25 to 30 - mobile plant - applied where the equipment is mobile, and recorded as not applicable where it is not.
How Each Criterion Is Graded
- Satisfactory - meets the requirement. Recorded as such, because an assessment that only lists problems is not evidence of anything.
- Conditionally Satisfactory - broadly compliant but with something to verify, improve or confirm before it can be signed off.
- Unsatisfactory - does not meet the requirement. The finding explains why and what a compliant outcome looks like.
- Action Required: Yes or No - a separate column against every criterion, so the action plan can be pulled straight out of the report.
Not every regulation applies to every machine, and part of the job is recording which ones do not and why. Where equipment also falls under another regime the report says so rather than quietly duplicating it: lifting parts sit under LOLER and attract a thorough examination, pressure systems need a written scheme of examination under PSSR, extraction needs LEV testing under COSHH, and access at height brings in the Work at Height Regulations. Where those examinations already cover the significant risks they can satisfy the Regulation 6 inspection duty for that item, so there is no sense paying twice.
Our Commitment To Your Safety
We Are A Proud Associate Member Of The Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed)
As an associate member of the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed), GSB Inspections works to the competency standards and code of practice SAFed sets for inspection bodies. For a PUWER assessment that matters in a particular way: the value of the report rests entirely on the competence and independence of the person who wrote it, and SAFed membership is one of the few external checks on both.
What The Report Contains, And What It Is For
PUWER creates no statutory certificate. There is no document to display and no expiry date to diary, and any provider offering to issue you a PUWER certificate is selling something the regulations do not contain. What PUWER creates is a duty on the employer. What the assessment gives you is the evidence base for discharging it.
One report per machine, so each item can be actioned, filed and revisited on its own. Each report contains:
- Equipment details – description, manufacturer, model, serial number, date of manufacture, capacity and normal operating parameters. Where these are unknown or missing from the plate, the report records that too, because it is itself a finding.
- The assessment matrix – every criterion, the regulation it comes from, a written verdict of Satisfactory, Conditionally Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, and a yes or no on whether action is required.
- A scored risk assessment – likelihood against consequence, with severity anchored to major injury as defined in RIDDOR, scored High, Medium or Low, and recorded for employees, visitors, contractors and the public as relevant.
- The control measures needed for each hazard, written as the outcome required rather than a part number or a supplier, because we do not sell either.
- A residual risk rating – the score the item drops to once those controls are in place. This is the column that turns a list of problems into a plan, and it is the one most reports in this market leave out.
- A recommended periodicity of inspection – what should be re-inspected and how often, derived from the equipment and its risk rather than picked because it sounded prudent.
- A photographic annex – captioned images of the findings, so the person who has to fix it can see what the assessor saw without walking the floor again.
One thing worth being clear about. This is a preliminary risk assessment carried out for the purpose of identifying the measures needed to comply with PUWER. It is not your finished risk assessment and does not replace it. The content is for you to consider internally and build your own final assessments from, which is how the duty is structured under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Providers who imply otherwise are describing something the law does not let them do for you.
Why It Matters Who Carries Out The Assessment
A PUWER assessment produces a list of things that are wrong with your machinery. Consider who is holding the pen. Most firms offering assessments in the UK also sell guarding, interlocks, safety relays, light curtains, retrofits, training or maintenance contracts. Their assessment is the survey that precedes their quote. That is not necessarily dishonest, but it is not independent either, and an HSE inspector reading the report knows it.
We Have Nothing To Sell You
GSB sells inspections and assessments. Not equipment, not guarding, not safety systems, not parts, not maintenance contracts. There is no commercial reason for our findings to be longer than they need to be, and none for them to be shorter either. It is the only structural guarantee of independence there is.
SAFed Associate Membership
We are an associate member of the Safety Assessment Federation, working to its competency standards and code of practice. Our engineers are professionally registered with the Engineering Council or working towards it, which is the competence question answered with something external rather than a claim.
The Regulation, Not A Downloaded Checklist
Free PUWER checklists are everywhere and they all stop at the same depth. We assess against the regulations that actually apply to each machine, name them in the finding, and say which ones do not apply. That is what makes the report defensible if it is ever read by an inspector or in an investigation.
Coverage Across The UK
We carry out PUWER assessments across England, Wales and Scotland, in manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, food production, engineering workshops, garages and vehicle workshops, care, education and print. Multi-site work is sequenced sensibly rather than booked a site at a time.
Risk Scored Before And After
Every hazard carries a current risk rating and a residual rating showing where it lands once the recommended controls are in. That is what lets you sequence the work by what actually moves the needle, rather than working down a list in the order it happened to be written.
No brokers, no call centre, no being passed between departments. The business is run by its two directors, both senior engineers, and enquiries reach them. If you have a technical question about whether something falls under PUWER, you can get it answered on the call rather than in a follow-up.
How A PUWER Assessment Runs
Six steps across four phases. Only one of them needs your production to pause, briefly, and only for the machines being assessed.
1
Send an equipment list
Email info@gsbinspections.co.uk or use the enquiry form on this page. A plant list or asset register is ideal; a spreadsheet of machine names and locations is enough to start. Photographs of anything home-built, heavily modified or bought second-hand help more than a description does. Tell us if an inspector or auditor has already asked for something, and what they asked for.
2
Quote and a date
We come back with a price, usually within 48 hours, based on the equipment and the site rather than on what we expect to find. Machines have to be stopped and safely isolated to assess guarding, interlocks and isolation, so we work around shutdowns, maintenance windows, out of hours and weekends. If an enforcement date is running, say so and we will prioritise the visit where the schedule allows.
3
Preparation before we attend
Before the visit we work through the legislation, standards and industry guidance that apply to your process and equipment, and identify what good looks like for each item. Any risk assessments you have had done before are taken into account, including whether the recommendations from them were ever implemented.
4
Done jointly with your health and safety duty holder before anything is surveyed. We agree the scope and confirm exactly which items are in it, then review the management systems around them: the health and safety policy and responsibilities, operational procedures and equipment manuals, training requirements and records, accident history relevant to the equipment, previous examination and inspection reports, and maintenance arrangements and logs. Having those to hand makes the day considerably shorter.
5
The physical survey
The assessor works through each machine against the criteria, with the operator where possible, because how a machine is actually used is often not how the manual says it is used. Expect questions about changeovers, cleaning and clearing blockages, since that is where most real risk lives. Findings are photographed as they are recorded.
6
The report
A report per machine describing the equipment, the hazards it presents, the state of the existing controls, and every deficiency with its risk prioritised. You take it from there. Once the action plan is closed out we can reassess the items that were remediated so the record shows the loop was closed, and most sites then move onto periodic Regulation 6 inspections at the interval the report recommends.
PUWER Risk Assessments: Your Questions Answered
It is a conformity assessment of your work equipment against the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. An assessor works through each machine, records every point where it does not meet the requirements, references the finding to the regulation it breaches, and grades it by how urgently it needs acting on. The output is a report and an action plan, not a pass or fail.
No, and it is the most common mix-up in this market. An assessment establishes whether a machine complies in the first place, and is triggered by an event such as a purchase, a modification, a relocation or an enforcement visit. An inspection is the periodic in-service check required by Regulation 6, looking for deterioration on equipment already established as suitable. Most sites need both, at different points.
PUWER sets no frequency for assessments. Regulation 6 ties periodic inspection to risk rather than to a fixed interval, and the interval is justified by the equipment, its use and its environment. In practice an assessment is repeated when something changes: the machine is modified, moved, used for a different job, or the existing assessment no longer reflects what is on the floor. The one fixed statutory cycle anywhere in PUWER belongs to power presses.
A competent person. The Approved Code of Practice defines that as someone with sufficient knowledge and experience to know what to look at, what to look for, and what to do about what they find. There is no single mandatory qualification, which is a genuine source of confusion. What matters is demonstrable knowledge of the equipment, the hazards, the regulations and current guarding and safeguarding standards. The employer can delegate the work but never the accountability.
No. PUWER creates no certificate, no expiry date and no document to display. Anyone offering to issue you a PUWER certificate is selling something the regulations do not contain. What the regulations do require is that inspection results are recorded and kept available, so the evidence takes the form of a report and records rather than a certificate.
No. A CE or UKCA mark records that the manufacturer declared conformity with supply law for the use they intended. PUWER asks whether the machine is safe for the task you are actually doing, in your environment, with your people. New marked machinery fails PUWER assessments regularly, most often because it was installed differently to the manual, guarded for a different feed method, or integrated into a line the manufacturer never saw. Regulation 10 deals with the conformity position; the other twenty-odd regulations still apply.
Almost anything used at work. The definition covers any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work, from a hand drill to a production line. It includes equipment that is hired rather than owned, and equipment an employee brings from home to use at work. The use of that equipment is defined just as widely, taking in starting, stopping, programming, setting, transporting, repairing, modifying, maintaining, servicing and cleaning.
It depends on the main activity at the site, not the postcode. Under the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998, the HSE is generally the enforcing authority for factories, manufacturing, construction, agriculture and hospitals, while the local authority takes retail, wholesale distribution and warehousing, offices, hotels and catering, and leisure. A factory and a warehouse on the same estate can have different enforcers, and both have the same powers to issue improvement and prohibition notices. Worth pinning down per site rather than assuming.
Nothing formally happens, because an assessment is not a statutory test with a pass mark. What you get is a finding against a named regulation with a risk grading. Something graded as requiring immediate action means the machine should come out of use until it is remedied. Everything else is prioritised so it can be planned into maintenance or a shutdown. The action plan is yours to work through, and we can re-assess the items once they are closed out.
One report per machine. It records the equipment details, then a full matrix of criteria with the regulation each comes from, a written verdict against every one, and a yes or no on whether action is required. Alongside that sits a scored risk assessment with the control measures needed and the residual risk once they are in place, a recommended inspection periodicity, and a photographic annex showing the findings. Nothing is a bare tick: items that pass are recorded as passing.
No, and it is important to be straight about that. What we carry out is a preliminary risk assessment for the purpose of identifying the measures needed to comply with PUWER. The content is then for you to consider internally and use to form your own final risk assessments, which is how the duty sits under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. It gives you the technical evidence base and the action plan; the risk assessment itself remains the employer’s.
Tell us that when you enquire, including the date you have been given if there is one. It changes how we sequence the visit and it changes what the report needs to demonstrate. Not having an assessment is a gap you can close; the thing that makes it worse is closing it with a document that will not stand up when read. Send the equipment list to info@gsbinspections.co.uk and mention the notice.
Usually yes, but not for the same parts of the machine. LOLER covers the lifting parts; PUWER covers everything else about the same equipment, plus all the equipment that does no lifting at all. A vehicle lift is the classic example: the lifting mechanism sits under LOLER, the controls, guarding, isolation and stability under PUWER. Where an examination under LOLER, PSSR or another regime already covers the significant risks for an item, it can satisfy the Regulation 6 inspection duty for that item, so there is no need to pay twice.
Yes, for the parts of the assessment involving guarding, isolation, controls and interlock function, and for anything requiring safe access. It is usually a short period per machine rather than a day, and it can be spread across a shutdown, a maintenance window or out of hours. Tell us your constraints at the quote stage and we will build the visit around them.
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons for an assessment. The absence of a manual and a Declaration of Conformity is itself a finding, and it changes how the machine has to be approached, since the assessor cannot assume the intended use. Photographs sent in advance help, particularly of the guarding, the controls and any modifications. Auction and ex-receivership machinery tends to have had a working life nobody documented.
Regulation 5 is maintenance: keeping equipment in efficient working order and good repair. Regulation 6 is inspection: a planned, safety-critical check by a competent person, recorded separately. They are distinct duties and this is a recurring enforcement finding. A combined service log recording lubrication, oil changes and reactive repairs does not evidence Regulation 6, no matter how well the machine is actually maintained. The fix is a separate inspection record per item, signed by the competent person.
More is not automatically safer. The HSE cautions that over-inspecting can wear out the very devices being checked, with emergency stops a frequent casualty of being tested far more often than they were designed for, and it encourages a tick-box culture where nothing is looked at properly. Inspection history can legitimately be used to extend intervals as well as shorten them. The skill is setting an interval the risk actually justifies.
No. GSB sells inspections and assessments only, not equipment, guarding, safety systems, parts or maintenance contracts. Reports describe the compliant outcome required rather than naming a product or a supplier. It is worth asking any provider this question directly, because a firm that also sells remediation has a commercial interest in the length of your action plan.
Yes. GSB Inspections is an associate member of SAFed, the trade association for the engineering inspection industry, and works to the competency standards and code of practice it sets. Our engineers are professionally registered with the Engineering Council or working towards registration. For an assessment whose entire value rests on the competence and independence of the assessor, external verification of both is worth having.
Likelihood of occurrence against severity of consequence, on a three by three matrix. Severity runs from minor injuries through injuries causing time off work to major injury or death as defined in RIDDOR. Likelihood runs from harm might occur through harm likely to occur to harm near certain. That produces a score: 7 to 9 is High and needs urgent action, 4 to 6 is Medium and needs action, 1 to 3 is Low where existing controls are maintained. Persons at risk are recorded separately for employees, visitors, contractors and the public, because the answer often differs between them.
Reassess whenever the equipment, the process or the procedures change in a way that could introduce new hazards. Otherwise a periodic review by a competent person, archived for reference. Separately, each report recommends inspection periodicities for the items it covers: typically twelve-monthly for safety devices and machinery with pre-use and monthly visual checks, pressure systems in line with a written scheme of examination, LEV at least every fourteen months, electrical systems usually at three or five years depending on the installation, and lifting equipment six-monthly where it lifts persons or twelve-monthly otherwise.
Useful Resources
HSE – Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER)
Website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/puwer.htm
The HSE hub for PUWER, covering the overview, inspection and maintenance of work equipment, training and competence, and mobile work equipment.
HSE – PUWER overview
Website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/puwer-overview.htm
The plain summary of what PUWER requires and what counts as work equipment. A sensible first read for anyone briefing an assessment for the first time.
L22 – Safe use of work equipment (Approved Code of Practice)
Website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l22.htm
The ACOP and guidance that assessments are carried out against. It carries special legal status: follow it and you are taken to have complied, or you must show your alternative is at least as good.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2306)
Website: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2306/contents
The regulations themselves. Worth having open if you want to check a finding against the actual wording of the regulation it cites.
HSG236 – Power presses: maintenance and thorough examination
Website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg236.htm
Relevant only if you run power presses, and essential if you do. Sits alongside L112, the Approved Code of Practice for the safe use of power presses.
Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed)
Website: https://www.safed.co.uk/
The trade association for the engineering inspection industry. GSB Inspections is an associate member.
GSB Inspection Services
PUWER Assessment Service Areas
We carry out PUWER risk assessments across the UK, so this list is indicative rather than exhaustive and it keeps growing. If your site sits outside these areas, or you have several sites spread across more than one of them, send us the details and we will tell you plainly whether we can cover it.
- Staffordshire
- Cheshire
- Derbyshire
- Shropshire
- Worcestershire
- Greater Manchester
- Wrexham County Borough
- West Midlands
- Warwickshire
- Leicestershire
- Nottinghamshire
- South Yorkshire
- Merseyside
- Conwy
Need A PUWER Risk Assessment?
No brokers, no call centre, and nothing to sell you off the back of what we find.
Send your equipment list and site location using the form below, or email info@gsbinspections.co.uk. We aim to come back with a quote within 48 hours. If an inspector or auditor has already set you a date, say so in the message.
info@gsbinspections.co.uk
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