Nationwide PUWER inspections and assessments
PUWER inspections for machinery and tools throughout the United Kingdom
Unsafe work equipment has a cause that can be found. An inspector looks at the machines first, checks guarding and controls against what the regulations require, and then sets out any repairs or changes needed.
- Inspection-led & recorded
- Minimal downtime
The PUWER inspection specialists
PUWER stands for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Those regulations place a legal duty on employers and the self-employed to ensure that work equipment is suitable for its intended purpose, maintained in a safe condition, and inspected at suitable intervals by a competent person. A PUWER inspection checks that each piece of equipment meets those requirements, records the findings in writing, and identifies any action needed to bring it into compliance.
PUWER applies to a wide range of equipment: production machinery, woodworking machines, printing presses, industrial doors, roller shutters, racking systems, plant and vehicles used at work. If your business uses equipment that could harm someone if it failed or was misused, a scheduled inspection is the way to demonstrate that your duty of care is being met. A specialist will attend site, work through the equipment systematically, and produce a written report with any defects graded by urgency.
Situations where a PUWER inspection is needed
- Work equipment has been purchased second-hand and no inspection record exists for it.
- A machine or piece of plant has been modified since it was last formally checked.
- Your site is preparing for an external compliance visit and the equipment records are incomplete.
- A piece of equipment has been involved in a near-miss or incident and needs to be assessed before returning to use.
- New equipment has been installed and has not yet been inspected under PUWER before staff begin using it.
- The interval since the last inspection has passed and no scheduled review has taken place.
Inspection before repair or replacement decisions are made
Unsafe work equipment may look serious, but the majority of defects are correctable without replacing the machine. When a check fails because of unsafe work equipment, the cause is frequently a guard that is absent, an emergency stop that has worn, or a maintenance log that has not been kept up, and fixing those specific items usually resolves the problem. The inspector goes through every item of equipment, logs each defect, and sets out the remedial work required relative to the level of risk involved.
Book your PUWER inspection
Give us the site address, the type of equipment and when access is available. A specialist will carry out the inspection and issue a written report at the set price.
- Reports issued after every inspection
- Covers plant, racking, industrial doors and more
Indicators of inadequate machine guarding
Defects vary in severity: some are minor adjustments, while others leave operators directly exposed to moving parts, trapping points or loads that could fall. Have an inspector assess any of the following. Dealing with faults promptly tends to reduce both the scope and the cost of the work.
When a PUWER inspection is due
- Guards that are missing, loose, bypassed or held in place with improvised fixings
- Emergency stops and control buttons that stick, are slow to respond or cannot be reached quickly
- Lifting equipment with no safe working load marked or no record of a recent thorough examination
- A maintenance log with blank entries, or no evidence that reported defects were ever repaired
- Operators using machines daily without any recorded training on that equipment
- Second-hand or modified equipment brought onto site without being checked against the current risk assessment
Why machinery around the United Kingdom drops out of PUWER compliance
Sites in the United Kingdom include small workshops, large warehouses and managed commercial buildings. Wear, changes in how a machine is used, and gaps in maintenance records are the most frequent causes of equipment falling short of PUWER. The most frequent reasons equipment fails in this area:
- Routine servicing that was skipped during busy production periods or when key staff left
- Guards and safety devices removed for cleaning or machine setting and not put back
- Machines relocated, adapted or assigned to new tasks without a fresh risk assessment
- Training records and maintenance logs that were not kept current as operators and equipment changed
Towns and areas we cover
Pick your town below to see detail on local PUWER inspections availability across the United Kingdom.
- Aberdeen
- Basildon
- Basingstoke
- Belfast
- Birkenhead
- Birmingham
- Blackburn
- Blackpool
- Bolton
- Bournemouth
- Bradford
- Brighton
- Bristol
- Cambridge
- Cardiff
- Chelmsford
- Cheltenham
- Colchester
- Coventry
- Crawley
- Derby
- Dundee
- Edinburgh
- Exeter
- Gateshead
- Gillingham
- Glasgow
- Gloucester
- Hove
- Huddersfield
- Hull
- Ipswich
- Leeds
- Leicester
- Lincoln
- Liverpool
- London
- Luton
- Maidstone
- Manchester
- Middlesbrough
- Milton Keynes
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Newport
- Northampton
- Norwich
- Nottingham
- Oldham
- Oxford
- Peterborough
- Plymouth
- Poole
- Portsmouth
- Reading
- Rochdale
- Salford
- Sheffield
- Slough
- Solihull
- Southampton
- Southend-on-Sea
- St Helens
- Stockport
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Sunderland
- Swansea
- Swindon
- Telford
- Warrington
- Watford
- West Bromwich
- Wolverhampton
- Worcester
- Worthing
- York
What sets us apart
Inspection-led & recorded
Minimal downtime
Clear defect reports
Inspectors covering the United Kingdom