Employer compliance with PUWER regulations is essential where work equipment is present. Machinery maintenance tasks carry a significant risk of injury from the task itself or the work environment. In this guide, we look at what employers need to know to maintain workplace equipment and to ensure you abide by PUWER regulations.
Importance of Proper Maintenance with PUWER equipment
Effective PUWER equipment and plant maintenance must be conducted to prevent issues, correct faults, and ensure equipment works effectively.
- This may be part of a planned PUWER compliance programme or carried out at short notice after a breakdown.
- It always involves non-routine activities and can expose those involved (and others) to various risks.
An effective PUWER inspection checklist maintenance programme will make plant and equipment more reliable. Fewer breakdowns will mean less dangerous contact with machinery is required, as well as having the cost benefits of better productivity and efficiency.
It’s important to note that maintenance needs to be correctly planned and carried out in line with HSE PUWER regulations. Inadequate upkeep has caused many fatalities and serious injuries, either during the maintenance or to those using poorly maintained or wrongly maintained/repaired equipment.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) state that:
- All work equipment must be maintained efficiently and kept in good repair.
- Machinery with maintenance logs should have up-to-date records.
- Maintenance procedures on work equipment should be conducted safely.
Who can maintain PUWER equipment in the workplace?
Maintenance work should only be done by competent individuals who have received sufficient information, instruction, and competence training (PUWER regulations 8 and 9).
When it comes to high-risk or complex equipment, these demands may be significant and, in some cases, best undertaken by the manufacturer or specialist contractors.
However, in many cases, PUWER equipment maintenance can be done in-house by suitably trained, competent staff. Well-established industry training schemes exist for maintenance work, such as changing abrasive wheels.
In other cases, such as for the use of small-scale scaffold towers, sufficient training may be provided by the equipment hirers. In other work, such as with hand-held chainsaws, training on the safe maintenance of the equipment is typically provided as an integral part of the basic training in its safe use.
Mitigating PUWER Health and Safety Risks during the Maintenance of Work Equipment
When maintaining machinery to PUWER health and safety standards, the equipment should ideally be de-energised, isolated for all energy sources and locked in a safe state to prevent it from re-energising before the maintenance or repair is complete—only the individual undertaking the maintenance must have the ability to ‘un-lock’ and re-energise the equipment.
Where state the equipment has to be running or working during a maintenance operation, and this exposes the employee to risk of harm, Work Equipment Regulations state that measures to enable the equipment to operate in a way that reduces the risk, including limiting the power, speed, or range of movement available to dangerous parts or providing additional protection during maintenance operations.
PUWER Legislation Concerning Energy Isolation
Energy Isolation is designed to prevent injury during the servicing and maintenance of building services (mechanical & electrical), machines and equipment resulting from the unexpected start-up or release of energy and to ensure the methods of isolation ensure that the systems or equipment remain dead and re-energising cannot be unintentional.
Energy Sources
Energy sources include all potential and kinetic energy relating to electrical, mechanical, pressured fluids (hydraulic or pneumatic), chemical, heat, and thermal, including steam or hot water, ionising and non-ionising radiation that can be hazardous to workers.
Effective Isolation
“Isolation” means securely establishing a break in the energy supply by ensuring that inadvertent reconnection is impossible. “Electrical Isolation” indicates explicitly the disconnection and separation of the electrical equipment from every source of electrical energy so that this disconnection and separation is secure and inadvertent release or re-energisation is prevented.
The role of the competent person
Before work can begin, a competent person must ensure PUWER requirements are met and risk-assess isolation and de-energisation procedures. Higher-risk work, where multiple isolations are required, must be controlled through a permit-to-work system.
PUWER Risk Assessment and Control
Where energy sources must be maintained when the equipment is stopped, for example, when the power supply is necessary to keep the equipment or parts of it safe, the risk assessment in line with Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations must reflect appropriate measures to eliminate any risk before attempting to isolate the equipment.
The interdependence of systems must be identified and recorded during the risk assessment before isolation. The risk assessment must always inform the chosen safe system of work.
Safe Work Systems
Safe systems of work for isolations must be determined by a competent person appropriate for the system or equipment and should include:
- Identification of equipment and systems involved.
- Points of isolation as close as possible to the system or equipment and location of energy sources.
- Shutdown procedures.
- Isolation process, including lockout tagout (LOTO). Tags must be visual, prohibit the use of the plant or equipment, and prevent reinstatement.
- Confirmation of dead or zero energy state by operating the start button or sensor.
Ensuring Puwer Compliance and Proper Procedures
- Where multiple isolations are required, a permit-to-work system must be used.
- Where work on isolated equipment is performed by more than one person, a locking device with multiple locks and keys must be provided unless a competent person determines through a PUWER risk assessment that it is not required.
- Where locking devices are required, each nominated person must have their own lock or key.
- The system of control must remove all locks before the isolating device can be disengaged.
- Keys must not be passed between or to anyone other than the nominated personnel.
Additional Safety Measures with PUWER Regulations
Stored energy: Where stored energy is present and capable of producing harm, typically from pneumatic and hydraulic systems or electrical charge in capacitors, then a means of dissipating stored energy must be provided to meet PUWER guidance.
Thermal energy: Where thermal energy is supplied by the circulation of preheated fluid (steam or hot fluids) or where power is provided in the form of liquids or gases under pressure, isolating valves must be fitted to the supply pipework.
Tags and warnings: Visual tags and warning notices must be used at points of isolation and in other prominent locations as deemed necessary to communicate the status of the equipment or system.
Reconnection and Access Control
Reconnection or reinstatement of the energy source must not put people at risk.
Only the appointed person can energise and remove locking-out devices. Those affected by the system returning to live status must be informed.
Access to the work area must be adequately controlled. Restricting access to non-essential personnel must be clearly stated, e.g., by physical barrier, signage, or other suitable measures to comply with PUWER legislation.
PUWER GUIDANCE TIP: To prevent accidents and injuries:
- don’t ignore maintenance
- don’t ignore reports of damaged or unsafe equipment
- never use faulty or damaged equipment
Get PUWER health and safety support and work equipment risk assessment advice from Avensure
If you are an employer and provide equipment for use, from hand tools and ladders to electrical power tools and larger plant, you must demonstrate that you have arrangements to ensure they are maintained safely.
At Avensure, we conduct various types of risk assessments. To find out if you are compliant, contact us for support with your risk assessment by visiting Avensure Contact!
PUWER Regulations & Work Equipment Assessment FAQs
Who enforces the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations?
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the United Kingdom enforce the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. As part of their duties, they can conduct an on-site work equipment risk assessment to ensure employers provide safe equipment for the employees. They also supply the necessary training to safeguard workers using equipment.
What is a PUWER inspection checklist?
The PUWER inspection checklist ensures employers maintain working equipment safely to comply with Work Equipment Regulations. The checklist covers machinery inspections, tools, and workplace appliances to safeguard from accidents and comply with legal requirements.
Who do the PUWER Regulations apply to?
The Provision and Use of Equipment Regulations apply to employers, the self-employed, and any individual who controls the use of work equipment. Regulations state that equipment, such as machinery, appliances, apparatus, and tools used in the workplace, must always uphold standards.
