PUWER 1998 (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) Explained

PUWER is the regulation that catches almost every workplace. If your organisation uses anything that someone might reasonably call “equipment” — and almost all of them do — PUWER applies. The duties are not technical. They are about whether the equipment is fit for the job, kept in good condition, used by people who know what they’re doing, and properly protected so it can’t injure the operator. The duties are simple to state and easy to fall short of in practice.

This guide explains what PUWER requires, who it applies to, what the most-cited regulations actually mean in workplace terms, and how PUWER sits alongside the other instruments employers most often have to think about — HSWA 1974, MHSWR 1999, and LOLER 1998.

What is PUWER 1998?

PUWER stands for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The regulations are made under section 15 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and replaced an earlier 1992 version. They came into force on 5 December 1998.

The regulations are supported by the Approved Code of Practice and Guidance L22 (Safe use of work equipment) published by HSE. ACoP L22 has special legal status — it’s not law in itself, but failure to follow it can be used in court as evidence of a breach of PUWER. Two further ACoPs sit alongside L22 covering specific equipment categories: woodworking machinery, and power presses for cold-metal working.

“Work equipment” is defined broadly. The HSE guidance lists machinery, appliances, apparatus, tools and installations. In practice the definition catches every piece of equipment provided for use at work, including:

• Production machinery and process plant
• Hand tools and powered hand tools
• Mobile equipment — fork-lifts, mobile cranes, MEWPs, vehicles used at work
• Lifting equipment (also covered by LOLER)
• Office equipment — kettles, photocopiers, paper guillotines
• Ladders and access equipment
• Pressure systems
• Equipment provided by employees for use at work, where the employer has authorised the use

The regulations apply to employers, the self-employed, and anyone who has control over work equipment to any extent — including those who hire equipment out, those who allow others to use equipment they own, and those who supervise work being carried out using particular equipment.

The main duties under PUWER

PUWER contains 35 regulations. The duties most relevant to UK employers sit in regulations 4 to 11, with specific provisions for mobile work equipment in Part III and power presses in Part IV. The headline duties are summarised below.

Regulation 4 — Suitability of work equipment

Equipment must be suitable for the purpose for which it is used or provided. Suitability covers the equipment itself, the conditions in which it is used, and the work being done. A grinder rated for occasional light use is not suitable for continuous heavy production; an electric drill is not suitable for use in a flammable atmosphere unless rated for it.

The duty also covers selection — the employer must select equipment that takes account of the working conditions and the risks identified in the risk assessment under MHSWR Regulation 3. This is where the assessment under MHSWR feeds into the equipment specification under PUWER.

Regulation 5 — Maintenance

Equipment must be maintained in efficient working order and in good repair. Where machinery has a maintenance log, it must be kept up to date. Maintenance is preventive (planned servicing, lubrication, inspection of wear parts) as well as reactive (repair of identified faults).

The wording “efficient working order” is broader than “working.” Equipment that runs but vibrates excessively, runs hot, or has degraded guards is not in efficient working order. The maintenance duty covers the whole condition of the equipment, not just whether it functions.

Regulation 6 — Inspection

Equipment must be inspected after installation, before being put into service for the first time, and at suitable intervals afterwards. Inspection has to be carried out by a competent person — someone with sufficient training, experience, knowledge and other qualities to determine whether the equipment is safe to use.

Records of inspection must be kept and made available on request. The inspection regime depends on the equipment — annually for many production machines; six-monthly or more frequently for high-risk equipment; at every change of operator for some types of mobile plant.

This is one of the most-cited regulations in HSE enforcement. A workshop with a maintenance log but no separate inspection record fails Regulation 6, even if the equipment is in good condition. Maintenance and inspection are different duties and have to be evidenced separately.

Regulation 7 — Specific risks

Where the use of work equipment is likely to involve a specific risk to health or safety, the employer must restrict its use to designated persons and ensure that repairs, modifications, maintenance or servicing are restricted to designated and trained persons. “Specific risk” means a risk that cannot be eliminated by the higher layers of the hierarchy of control — the residual risk that remains after suitability, maintenance, and protection have been addressed.

For our walk-through of the hierarchy of control underlying this duty, see our Hierarchy of Control guide.

Regulation 8 — Information and instructions

Every person who uses equipment must have available to them adequate health and safety information and, where appropriate, written instructions. Information must cover the conditions in which and the methods by which the equipment may be used, foreseeable abnormal situations, and the conclusions to be drawn from experience of using the equipment.

“Available” is the operative word. Information sat in a binder in the supervisor’s office is not available to the operator. Manufacturer’s manuals stored in a filing cabinet without anyone knowing they exist are not available. The information has to be findable and usable at the point of work.

Regulation 9 — Training

Every person who uses, supervises or manages the use of work equipment must receive adequate training in methods of use, the risks involved, and the precautions to be taken. Training must be specific to the equipment, not generic — a “general H&S induction” doesn’t satisfy Regulation 9 if the worker then uses specific equipment without specific training.

For high-risk equipment — fork-lift trucks, mobile cranes, mobile elevating work platforms, power presses — the training requirement converts in practice into the requirement for a specific operator certification. Our plant operator courses cover the standard certifications for these equipment types.

Regulation 11 — Dangerous parts of machinery (the dangerous-parts hierarchy)

Regulation 11 sets out the central machinery-safety duty: every employer must take measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, or to stop the movement of any dangerous part before any part of a person enters a danger zone.

The measures must be taken in the order of preference set out in Regulation 11(2):

1. Fixed guards — physical guards that enclose the dangerous part and cannot be removed without tools
2. Other guards or protection devices — interlocked guards, light curtains, two-hand controls, pressure mats
3. Jigs, holders, push-sticks — devices that keep the operator’s hands clear of the danger zone
4. Information, instruction, training and supervision — administrative measures that depend on the operator’s behaviour

This is PUWER’s version of the hierarchy of control, applied specifically to dangerous parts of machinery. The same principle applies — start with the most reliable measure (fixed guards) and work down only as necessary. A workshop using “training and supervision” as its primary control for a dangerous part of a machine that could be guarded fails Regulation 11(2).

Regulations 12, 13, 14 — Specific hazards

Regulation 12 covers protection against specified hazards: things ejected from work equipment, things falling from work equipment, fire and explosion arising from the use of equipment, overheating, and the unintended discharge of substances.

Regulation 13 covers high or very low temperatures.

Regulation 14 covers controls — start controls must require deliberate action; stop controls must override start controls; emergency stops must be readily accessible and clearly identifiable.

Regulations 15–18 — Isolation, stability, lighting, marking

Regulation 15 requires that equipment can be isolated from energy sources. Regulation 16 covers stability — equipment must be stable in use. Regulation 17 covers lighting. Regulation 18 covers maintenance operations — where maintenance can be carried out without exposing workers to risk, that’s the route required.

Regulations 19, 22 — Markings and warnings

Regulation 23 (markings) and Regulation 24 (warnings) require that equipment is marked with appropriate health and safety markings, and that warnings are unambiguous, easily perceived and easily understood.

Part III — Mobile work equipment (Regs 25–30)

Part III applies to fork-lifts, mobile cranes, telehandlers, mobile elevating work platforms, and similar equipment. The duties cover protection against rollover, falls of materials, the safety of persons being carried, and self-propelled equipment specifically.

Part IV — Power presses (Regs 31–35)

Part IV applies a stricter regime to power presses for cold-metal working. Power-press inspection intervals are six-monthly, and inspection has to be carried out by a competent person under specific qualifications. Power presses are the only equipment type for which PUWER prescribes specific inspection intervals.

UKCA marking and equipment supplied for use at work

New equipment supplied for use at work must carry a UKCA mark (or a CE mark for goods placed on the GB market under the agreed transition arrangements) showing it meets UK product-safety requirements. The duty to apply the mark sits with the manufacturer or importer; the duty to check the mark is in place before use sits with the employer under PUWER Regulation 4 (suitability).

Where equipment is imported from outside the UK without a valid mark, the duty to verify conformity transfers to whoever places the equipment in service. Buying second-hand equipment from another business doesn’t transfer the original conformity assessment — the buyer has to assure themselves the equipment meets PUWER before using it.

PUWER and LOLER — how they work together

PUWER applies to all work equipment. LOLER (the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998) applies specifically to lifting equipment — equipment used at work for lifting and lowering loads, including the attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting it.

Where equipment is also lifting equipment, both regulations apply. PUWER covers suitability, maintenance, inspection, training and the general safety of the equipment. LOLER adds the specific lifting-operation duties — thorough examination at six-monthly or annual intervals depending on use, planning of lifting operations, supervision of those operations, and the requirement for a competent person to carry out thorough examination.

For a full walk-through of LOLER specifically, see our LOLER Regulations guide.

PUWER and the wider UK H&S framework

Common compliance failures

Five recurring failures from work with UK organisations:

1. No separation of maintenance and inspection records

Regulation 5 (maintenance) and Regulation 6 (inspection) are separate duties. A combined “service log” that records lubrication, oil changes and reactive repairs but doesn’t separately record planned safety-critical inspection by a competent person fails Regulation 6. The fix is straightforward — a separate inspection record per piece of equipment, signed by the competent person, retained for the equipment’s working life.

2. Generic training records

Regulation 9 requires training specific to the equipment and the use. A worker’s training record that says “completed H&S induction 2024” is not evidence of PUWER-compliant training for any specific piece of equipment they then operate. The fix is per-equipment training records — what was covered, when, by whom, with what competency check at the end.

3. Defeated guards

Interlocked guards bypassed because they slow production down. Push-stick discipline that lasts a week after the audit. A workforce that knows the right answer when asked but doesn’t apply it under pressure. Where guards are routinely defeated, the engineering control has been demoted in practice to administrative control — and the equipment fails Regulation 11(2). The fix is design — guards that don’t slow production noticeably, interlocks that can’t be bypassed without obvious physical signs.

4. Hire equipment that arrives without inspection records

The duty to ensure equipment is safe sits with whoever uses or controls it, regardless of who owns it. Hire equipment with a “current LOLER certificate” but no PUWER inspection record is non-compliant when used. The fix is a goods-in inspection process for hire equipment, with the hirer’s own competent person verifying the equipment meets PUWER before it goes into use.

5. Second-hand equipment without a conformity assessment

Equipment bought second-hand from another business doesn’t carry forward its original UKCA/CE conformity. The buyer has to verify it meets current standards before placing it in service. Workshops accumulating older equipment from auctions or business closures are particularly exposed here.