What Is PUWER? The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations Explained

PUWER is the short name for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 — the UK law that decides whether the equipment your people use at work is suitable, maintained, inspected and used by people who know how to use it. It is the broadest piece of equipment law on a UK site. A pallet truck, a set of warehouse steps, a run of pallet racking, a lift table, a workshop drill and a delivery van's tail-lift are all "work equipment", and PUWER applies to every one of them. This guide explains what PUWER means in plain English, what each of its main regulations requires, what a "PUWER inspection" actually is, and how it applies to the storage and handling equipment in a warehouse or workshop.

If you have arrived here from our guide to LOLER: PUWER is the base layer, and LOLER adds extra duties on top for equipment that lifts. For a side-by-side of the two, see LOLER vs PUWER: which applies to warehouse equipment.

What is PUWER?

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2306) came into force on 5 December 1998 and apply in Great Britain; Northern Ireland has its own equivalent, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999. They are made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and are supported by an HSE Approved Code of Practice and guidance, L22, Safe use of work equipment (fourth edition, 2014).

The regulations put duties on employers, on the self-employed, and on anyone who has control of work equipment or of people using it — for example a site operator whose equipment is used by a contractor's staff. The core idea is simple: equipment provided for use at work must be safe to use, and must stay safe to use for as long as it is in service.

What counts as "work equipment"? Almost anything used at work: machinery, appliances, apparatus, tools and installations. That includes hand tools, powered machinery, mobile equipment, lifting equipment and fixed installations. In a warehouse, that means the pallet trucks, stackers, trolleys, steps and platforms, scissor lift tables, racking and shelving systems, and the loading-bay ramps and dockplates that the goods cross on the way in. Equipment that is not provided for work — a member of the public's own tools, for instance — falls outside PUWER, though general health and safety law still applies.

PUWER meaning in five duties

PUWER has more than thirty regulations, but most of what it asks of a warehouse or workshop comes down to five duties. If you remember nothing else, remember these:

  1. Suitable — the equipment is right for the job, the place and the conditions it is used in (regulation 4).
  2. Maintained — kept in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair (regulation 5).
  3. Inspected — where its safety depends on installation or it deteriorates in use, inspected at suitable intervals and the result recorded (regulation 6).
  4. Used by trained people — anyone who uses, supervises or manages the use of it has adequate information, instructions and training (regulations 8 and 9).
  5. Protected — fitted with the guards, controls, isolation, stability, lighting, markings and warnings it needs (regulations 11 to 24).

The rest of this guide takes each in turn, with what it means for the equipment on a typical warehouse floor.

The main PUWER regulations, explained

Regulation 4 — suitability

Equipment must be constructed or adapted to be suitable for the purpose it is used or provided for, and selected with regard to the working conditions and risks where it will be used. This is the regulation people forget, because it bites at the buying stage. A standard hand pallet truck used on a gravel yard, a mild-steel truck in a washdown area, or a set of steps that is too narrow for the load being carried up it are all suitability failures — the equipment may be in perfect condition and still be the wrong equipment. It is why specialist ranges exist: a rough terrain pallet truck for uneven ground, a galvanised and stainless steel truck for wet and corrosive areas, mobile safety steps with a platform and handrails rather than a stepladder for repeated picking at height.

Regulation 5 — maintenance

"The 5 PUWER regulation", as it often appears in searches, is the maintenance duty: work equipment must be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair, and where a machine has a maintenance log, the log must be kept up to date. PUWER does not set a maintenance interval — it expects you to follow the manufacturer's recommendations and adjust for how hard the equipment is worked. For a pallet truck, that means hydraulics, wheels and rollers, the handle and the lowering mechanism; our pallet truck maintenance guide walks through it.

Regulation 6 — inspection

Inspection is required in three circumstances: where safety depends on the installation conditions (after installation and before first use, and after reassembly at a new site); at suitable intervals where the equipment is exposed to conditions that cause deterioration liable to result in danger; and after exceptional circumstances such as major modification, known or suspected serious damage, or a substantial change in how it is used. The result must be recorded and kept at least until the next inspection. More on what that looks like in practice below.

Regulation 7 — specific risks

Where equipment carries a specific risk, its use — and its repair, modification, maintenance or servicing — must be restricted to people who have been given that task. A powered stacker is the obvious warehouse example: not everyone on the floor should be driving it.

Regulations 8 and 9 — information, instructions and training

Users must have adequate health and safety information and, where appropriate, written instructions. They must also have received adequate training, including in the methods to be used, the risks, and the precautions to take — and so must the people who supervise or manage the use of the equipment. There is no statutory "PUWER certificate" or licence. Accredited training schemes are widely used and are good evidence that training was adequate, but PUWER asks for adequate training, not a particular card. The same point applies to pallet trucks: there is no legal licence for one in the UK, but the employer still has to be able to show the operator was trained — our guide on how to use a pallet truck safely covers what that training should include.

Regulation 10 — conformity with product safety law

Equipment first provided after the relevant product-safety rules came in must conform to them — in practice, for machinery supplied into Great Britain, the UKCA or CE marking and declaration of conformity required under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008. A marking is evidence of conformity at the point of supply; it does not replace the employer's own duties under the rest of PUWER.

Regulations 11 to 24 — the physical safeguards

This block covers the hardware: guarding of dangerous parts of machinery (11); protection against specified hazards such as falling or ejected articles and fire (12); protection against high or very low temperatures (13); start, stop and emergency stop controls and control systems (14 to 18); isolation from sources of energy (19); stability (20); suitable lighting (21); the ability to carry out maintenance safely (22); and markings and warnings (23 and 24). On storage and handling equipment, stability and markings are the two that come up most. A high-lift pallet truck whose stabilisers must deploy before it lifts, a racking run anchored to the floor, a load notice on a shelving bay — all are PUWER matters as much as good practice.

Regulations 25 to 30 — mobile work equipment

Part III adds duties for equipment that travels: no one may ride on it unless it is suitable for carrying people; risks from rolling over must be minimised; ride-on forklift trucks need protection against overturning; and self-propelled equipment needs, among other things, facilities to prevent unauthorised starting, braking, adequate vision for the driver and lighting where needed. Powered pallet trucks, stackers and electric tugs all sit here as well as under Part II. (Part IV, regulations 31 to 35, covers power presses and is unlikely to apply in a warehouse.)

What is a PUWER inspection?

A "PUWER inspection" is an inspection carried out to meet regulation 6. HSE describes its purpose as finding out whether equipment can be operated, adjusted and maintained safely, so that deterioration is spotted and put right before it causes a risk. Three things about it are routinely misunderstood.

There is no fixed PUWER inspection interval. Unlike LOLER, which sets six- and twelve-month maximums for thorough examination, PUWER leaves the interval to risk assessment — taking account of the manufacturer's recommendations, industry advice, how and where the equipment is used, and your own history with it. Equipment used outdoors or in harsh conditions will usually need inspecting more often than the same equipment indoors, and intervals can be lengthened where records show negligible deterioration.

An inspection is not one thing. HSE's own guidance describes three levels: quick checks before use (tyres, brakes, controls, obvious damage); periodic checks, often weekly (guards, safety devices); and more thorough inspections every few months or longer. Records are not normally needed for the simplest pre-use checks, but the result of a regulation 6 inspection must be recorded and kept until the next one. Records can be electronic, but must be available to an inspector on request.

The inspector does not have to be an outside specialist. Anyone with enough knowledge and experience of the equipment to know what to look at, what to look for and what to do about a problem can carry out a PUWER inspection. Much of it can be done in-house by experienced staff. Specialist inspection is the right call for complex machinery — and for pallet racking, where the industry framework (HSE's HSG76 and SEMA guidance) recommends a weekly or more frequent in-house check plus an expert inspection at least every twelve months. Our guide to warehouse racking inspection covers that regime in detail.

PUWER inspection versus LOLER thorough examination

The two are often confused because some equipment needs both. The practical difference:

PUWER inspection LOLER thorough examination
Applies to All work equipment where safety depends on installation or it deteriorates Lifting equipment and lifting accessories
Interval Set by risk assessment — no statutory maximum Every 6 months (accessories, or equipment lifting people) or 12 months (other lifting equipment), or per a written scheme of examination
Who A competent person — often in-house A competent person with enough independence to make an objective judgement
Record Kept until the next inspection A report with contents set by LOLER Schedule 1

A pallet stacker or a scissor lift table sits under both: it is work equipment (PUWER) that lifts loads (LOLER). A pallet truck is always under PUWER; whether LOLER thorough examination also applies to a hand pallet truck is a genuinely contested point, which we set out both sides of in LOLER vs PUWER.

PUWER inspection checklist: what to record

People searching for a “PUWER inspection checklist” are usually after a form to fill in. PUWER does not prescribe one: regulation 6 requires the result of an inspection to be recorded and kept until the next inspection, but it does not dictate the layout. A sound record for a piece of storage or handling equipment normally captures:

  • What was inspected — the type of equipment, the model, any identification mark or asset number, and its usual location.
  • When and by whom — the date, and the name of the competent person who carried out the inspection.
  • What was checked — the items you decided matter for that equipment, for example wheels, forks, handle and lowering mechanism on a pallet truck, or uprights, beams and load notices on racking.
  • What was found — any defect, damage or wear, and whether the equipment is safe to stay in service.
  • What was done about it — the repair or action taken, the date, and when the next inspection is due.

Build the checklist items for each equipment type from the five duties above: is it still suitable (regulation 4), is it maintained (regulation 5), are guards, controls, stability and markings in place (regulations 11 to 24), and have users been trained (regulations 8 and 9). A single generic form for a forklift, a set of warehouse steps and a racking run will miss what matters on each, so keep one short checklist per equipment type.

Is there such a thing as a PUWER risk assessment?

Not as a separate legal document. The duty to assess risk comes from the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999; PUWER then relies on that assessment to decide suitability, inspection needs and intervals, training, and the safeguards each piece of equipment needs. When a consultant offers a "PUWER assessment", it is usually a machinery-focused review of guarding, controls and isolation against regulations 11 to 19 — valuable on a production line, less often needed for pallet trucks and shelving. For most storage and handling equipment, a well-kept equipment register, a documented inspection regime and training records are the evidence an inspector will look for.

A PUWER checklist for warehouse and workshop equipment

Use this as a starting point, not a substitute for your own risk assessment.

  • Keep a register. List every item of work equipment: pallet trucks, stackers, tugs, trolleys, steps and platforms, lift tables, racking and shelving, workbenches with vices or tooling, dock equipment. You cannot inspect what you have not listed.
  • Check suitability at purchase and on change of use. Floor surface, wet or corrosive areas, load weight and size, the height being reached, how often the equipment is worked. A change of use is an "exceptional circumstance" under regulation 6.
  • Set an inspection interval per equipment type, and write down why. Manufacturer's recommendation first, then adjust for use and conditions.
  • Separate pre-use checks from periodic inspections. A pre-use check on a pallet truck (wheels, forks, handle return, lowering) takes a minute and rarely needs a record; a periodic inspection does.
  • Record, and keep records until the next inspection. Tag or label smaller items so a user can see the inspection is current — HSE suggests tagging or colour coding where equipment moves between sites or users.
  • Quarantine damaged equipment. Equipment that needs inspection should not be used unless you know the inspection has taken place. A bent pallet-racking upright or a truck that will not hold its lift comes out of use until it is repaired.
  • Train users, supervisors and managers. Record who has been trained on what, and when.
  • Check LOLER on anything that lifts. Stackers, lift tables, forklift man cages and lifting accessories need the thorough examination regime on top.
  • Remember the other regulations that sit alongside PUWER: the Work at Height Regulations 2005 for steps and platforms, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 for anything pushed, pulled or lifted by hand, and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 for floors, traffic routes and the building itself.

Noise output is one of the things to consider when selecting work equipment; see our guide to the Noise at Work Regulations 2005.

How PUWER applies to the equipment we sell

We supply storage and handling equipment, not inspection or training services, and the duty to decide what applies to your equipment in your workplace sits with you as the employer. What we can do is make the suitability decision easier, because that is a buying decision. A few examples from our range:

For a wider view of the rules that apply in a warehouse, see our warehouse health and safety guide. This article is general guidance on the regulations, not legal advice; for a decision about specific equipment, speak to a competent person and read HSE's L22.