Does PUWER Apply to Hire Equipment? Your Responsibilities Explained
- Nexus Examination
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Hiring kit in is meant to make life easier, and a lot of businesses assume the hire company takes care of all the safety side. That assumption is where the trouble starts. Hired equipment does not sit outside the rules, and the responsibility does not all sit with the hire firm. Here is whether PUWER applies to hire equipment, and exactly who is responsible for what.
Does PUWER Apply to Hire Equipment?
Yes. PUWER applies to work equipment whether you own it or hire it in. Hiring kit does not pass the duty to someone else. The hire company is responsible for supplying safe, suitable equipment, and you are responsible for how it is used while it is in your control.
In other words, the duty is shared, not transferred. We carry out PUWER examinations across Berkshire and the surrounding counties, and hired-in equipment is one of the areas businesses get wrong most often.
Why Hiring Does Not Remove Your Responsibility
PUWER places duties on anyone who owns, operates or has control over work equipment. As the HSE makes clear, that includes equipment your employees use whether it is owned by you or not.
In our experience, this is the single biggest misunderstanding around hire. The hire company has real duties, but so do you the moment that equipment lands on your site and your people start using it. You cannot point at the supplier if something goes wrong with how it was used.
Who Is Responsible for What?
The simplest way to think about it is that the hire company is responsible for the equipment, and you are responsible for the use.
The Hire Company's Duties
A reputable hire company should provide equipment that is:
Safe, suitable and in good working condition
Maintained, and where required, inspected or examined with valid records
Supplied with the right information and instructions for safe use
Your Duties as the Hirer
Once it is in your control, the responsibility for safe use is yours. That means making sure:
The equipment is suitable for your specific task and environment
Only trained, competent people operate it
Pre-use checks are carried out before each shift
It stays in safe condition while you have it
It is inspected at suitable intervals if you keep it long enough
What About Long-Term Hire?
Short hire is straightforward, but long-term hire is where the lines blur. The longer you keep a piece of equipment, the more the duty to inspect it at suitable intervals shifts towards you.
A piece of plant like a hired roller inspection still needs to happen on schedule, and after a few months on long-term hire that often becomes your responsibility rather than the hire firm's. The same principle applies to hired lifting equipment, which also falls under LOLER, so do not assume a long-term hire is permanently the supplier's problem.
How to Protect Yourself When Hiring
The fix is simple and worth building into your hire process. Ask for current inspection or examination records before the equipment goes into use, check it is genuinely suitable for your job, brief your operators properly, and keep your own record of pre-use checks.
If you are hiring something in for a longer stretch, factor the inspection into your own schedule. Our thorough examination services cover hired-in equipment as well as owned kit, so there is no gap while it is in your control.
The Bottom Line on PUWER and Hired Equipment
PUWER absolutely applies to hire equipment. Hiring spreads the responsibility between you and the supplier, it does not remove yours.
Treat hired kit with the same care as your own, get the records up front, and keep an eye on inspection dates if you hold onto it. Do that and a hire arrangement stays simple. Skip it and you can find yourself carrying the blame for equipment you do not even own.
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