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The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) are made under the HSW Act and their primary aim is to ensure that work equipment is used without risks to health and safety, regardless of its age, condition or origin.

Definitions

Work equipment - means any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work.
Use - in relation to work equipment means any activity involving work equipment and includes starting, stopping, transporting, repairing, modifying, maintaining, servicing and cleaning.

Duty holders – Reg 3

Under PUWER the following groups of people have duties placed on them:

• Employers
• The self employed
• People, who have control of work equipment, for example plant hire companies.

In addition to all places of work the Regulations apply to common parts of shared buildings, industrial estates and business parks; to temporary work sites including construction; to home working (but not to domestic work in private household); to hotels, hostels and sheltered accommodation.

Suitability of work equipment – Reg 4

Work equipment

• Has to be constructed or adapted so that it is suitable for its purpose
• It has to be selected with the conditions of use and the users’ health and safety in mind
• It may only be used for operations for which, and under conditions for which it is suitable.

This covers all types of use and conditions and must be considered for each particular use or condition. For example: scissors may be safer than knives with unprotected blades and should therefore be used for cutting operations where practicable; risks imposed by wet, hot or cold conditions must be considered.

Maintenance – Reg 5

The regulation sets out the general requirement to keep work equipment maintained in:

• An efficient state
• Efficient working order
• Good repair

Compliance involves all three criteria. In addition, where there are maintenance logs for machinery, they must be kept up to date.

In many cases this will require routine and planned preventive maintenance of work equipment. When checks are made priority must be given to:

• Safety
• Operating efficiency and performance
• The equipment’s general condition.

Inspection – Reg 6

Where the safety of work equipment depends on the installation conditions, it must be inspected:

• After installation and before being put into service for the first time
• After assembly at the new site or a new location

To ensure that it has been installed correctly and is safe to operate.

Where work equipment is exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations it must be inspected:

At suitable intervals

• When exceptional circumstances occur.

Inspections must be determined and carried out by competent persons. An inspection will vary from a simple visual external inspection to a detailed comprehensive inspection which may include some dismantling and/or testing. However, the level of inspection would normally be less than that required for a thorough examination under, for example, LOLER for certain items of lifting equipment.

Records of inspections must be kept with sufficient information to properly identify the equipment, its normal location, dates, faults found, action taken, to whom faults were reported, who carried out the inspection, when repairs were made, date of the next inspection. When equipment leaves an employer’s undertaking it must be accompanied by physical evidence that the last inspection has been carried out.

Specific risks – Reg 7

Where the use of work equipment involves specific hazards, its use must be restricted to those persons given the specific task of using it and repairs etc. must be restricted to designated persons.

Designated persons must be properly trained to fulfill their designated task.

Hazards must be controlled using a hierarchy of control measures, starting with elimination where this is possible, then considering hardware measures such as physical barriers and, lastly, software measures such as a safe system of work.

Information, instruction and training – Regs 8 and 9

Persons who use work equipment must have adequate:

• Health and safety information
• Where appropriate, written instructions about the use of equipment
• Training for health and safety in methods which should be adopted when using the equipment, any hazards and precaution which should be taken to reduce risks.

Any persons who supervise the use of work equipment should also receive information, instruction and training. The training of young persons is especially important with the need for special risk assessments under the Management Regulations.

Health and safety training should take place within working hours.

Conformity with Community requirements – Reg 10

The intention of this regulation is to require that employers ensure that equipment, provided for use after 31 December 1992, complies with the relevant essential requirements in various European Directives made under Article 100A of the Treaty of Rome. The requirements of PUWER 98 regulations 11 to 19 and 22 to 29 only apply if the essential requirements do not apply to a particular piece of equipment.

However, PUWER regulations 11-19 and 22-29 will apply if:

• They include requirements which were not included in the relevant product legislation;
• The relevant product legislation has not been complied with (e.g. the guards fitted on a machine when supplied were not adequate).

Employers using work equipment need to check that any new equipment has been made to the requirements of the relevant Directive, has a CE marking, suitable instructions and a Certificate of Conformity.

The Machinery Directive was brought to the UK law by the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 as amended, which duplicate PUWER regulations 11-19 and 22-29.

The employer still retains the duty to ensure that the equipment is safe to use.

Dangerous parts of machinery – Reg 11

Measures have to be taken which:

• Prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar.
• Stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.

The measures required follow the normal hierarchy and consist of:

• The provision of fixed guards enclosing every dangerous part of machinery
• The provision of other guards or protection devises
• The provision of jigs, holders, push-sticks or similar protection appliances used in conjunction with the machinery
• Provision of information, instruction, training and supervision.

All guards and protection devises shall:

• Be suitable for its purpose
• Be of good construction, sound material and adequate strength
• Be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair
• Not give rise to increased risks to health and safety
• Not be easily bypassed or disabled
• Be situated at sufficient distance from danger zone
• Not unduly restrict the view of the operating cycle of the machine where this is relevant
• Be so constructed or adapted that they allow operations necessary to fit or replace parts and for maintenance work, if possible without having to dismantle the guard or protection devise.

Protection against specified hazards – Reg 12

Exposure to health ad safety risks from the following hazards must be prevented or adequately controlled:

• Any article falling or being ejected from work equipment
• Rapture or disintegration of work equipment
• Work equipment catching fire or overheating
• The unintended or premature discharge of any article, or of any gas, dust, liquid, vapour or other substance which is produced, used or stored in the work equipment
• The unintended or premature explosion of the work equipment or any article or substance produced, used or stored in it.

High or very low temperature – Reg 13

Work equipment and any article or substance produced, used or stored in work equipment which is at a high or very low temperature must have protection to prevent injury by burn, scald or sear.

This does not cover risks such as from radiant heat or glare.

Engineering methods of control such as insulation, doors, temperature control, guards, etc. should be used where practicable, but there are some cases, like cooker hot plates, where this is not possible.

Controls – Reg 14 to 18

Where work equipment is provided with (Regulation 14):

• Starting controls (including restarting after a stoppage)
• Controls which change speed, pressure or other operating condition which would affect health and safety

It should not be possible to perform any operation except by a deliberate action on the control. This does not apply to the normal operating cycle of an automatic devise.

Where appropriate, one or more readily accessible Stop controls shall be provided to bring the work equipment to a safe condition in a safe manner (Regulation 15).

They must

• Bring the work equipment to a complete stop where necessary
• Where necessary switch off all sources of energy after stopping the functioning of the equipment
• Operate in priority to starting or operating controls.

Where appropriate one or more readily accessible emergency stop controls (Regulation 16) must be provided unless it is not necessary:

• By the nature of the hazard
• By the time taken for the stop controls to bring the equipment to a complete stop

Emergency stop controls must have priority over stop controls. They should be provided where other safeguards are not adequate to prevent risk when something irregular happens. They should not be used as a substitute for safeguards or the normal method of stopping equipment.

All controls for work equipment shall (Regulation 17):

• Be clearly visible and identifiable including appropriate marking where necessary
• Not expose any person to a risk to their health and safety except where necessary.

Where appropriate employers shall ensure that:

• Controls are located in a safe place
• Systems of work are effective in preventing any person being in a danger zone when equipment is started
• An audible, visible or other suitable warning is given whenever or equipment is about to start

Persons in a danger zone as a result of starting or stopping equipment must have sufficient time and suitable means to avoid any risks.

Control systems (Regulation 18) must be safe and chosen so as to follow for failures, faults and constraints. They must:

• Not create any increased risk to health and safety
• Not result in additional or increased risks when failure occurs
• Not impede the operation of any stop or emergency stop controls.

Isolation from sources of energy – Reg 19

Work equipment must be provided with readily accessible and clearly identified means to isolate it from all sources of energy.

Re-connection must not expose any person using the equipment to any risks.

The main purpose is to allow equipment to be made safe under particular circumstances, such as maintenance, when unsafe conditions occur, or when adverse conditions such as electrical equipment in a flammable atmosphere or wet conditions occur.

If isolation may cause a risk in itself special precautions must be taken, for example, a support for a hydraulic press tool which could fall under gravity if the system is isolated.

Stability – Reg 20

Work equipment must be stabilized by clamping or otherwise as necessary to ensure health and safety.
Most machines used in a fixed position should be bolted or fastened so that they do not move or rock in use.

Lighting – Reg 21

Suitable and sufficient lighting, taking account of the operations being carried out, must be provided where people use work equipment.

This will involve general lighting and in many cases local lighting, such as on a sewing machine. If access for maintenance is required regularly, permanent lighting should be provided.

Maintenance Operations – Reg 22

So far as is reasonably practicable work equipment should be constructed or adapted to allow maintenance operations to be:

• Conducted while they are shit down
• Undertaken without exposing people to risk
• Carried out after appropriate protection measures have been taken

Markings & Warnings – Reg 23 & 24

All work equipment should have all appropriate markings for health & safety made in a clearly visible manner. For example, the maximum safe working load, stop and start controls, or the maximum rotation speed of an abrasive wheel.

Work equipment must incorporate warnings or warning devices as appropriate, which are unambiguous, easily perceived and easily understood.

They may be incorporated in systems of work, a notice, a flashing light or an audible warning. They are an active instruction or warning to take specific precautions or actions when a hazard exists.

Mobile Work Equipment – Reg 25 – 30

The main purpose of these regulations is to require additional precautions relating to work equipment while it is traveling from one location to another or where it does work while moving. If the equipment is designed primarily for travel on public roads the Road Vehicles Regulations 1986 will normally be sufficient to comply with PUWER ’98.

Mobile equipment would normally move on wheels, tracks, rollers, skids, etc. Mobile equipment may be self-propelled, towed or remote controlled and may incorporate attachments. Pedestrian controlled work equipment such as lawn mowers is not covered within this section.