How Often Does a Scissor Lift Need to Be Inspected? Every Interval Explained
If you own or operate a scissor lift, how often it needs to be inspected is a question with a short answer and a longer one. The short answer is every six months. The longer answer covers the daily checks your operators should be doing, the events that trigger an examination early, and the situations where a different interval applies. Here is all of it, set out plainly.
How often does a scissor lift need to be inspected?
A scissor lift must be thoroughly examined at least every six months under LOLER 1998. The six month interval applies because a scissor lift lifts people, which places it in the higher risk category under Regulation 9. An examination is also required after exceptional circumstances, regardless of when the last one was done.
That six months is a maximum, not a target. We arrange each scissor lift inspection to fall comfortably inside the window, because an examination on the exact anniversary leaves you no room to put defects right before the certificate expires.
Why scissor lifts sit in the six month category
LOLER splits lifting equipment into two intervals. Equipment used to lift people is examined at least every six months. Equipment that only lifts loads is examined at least every twelve.
A scissor lift is a Mobile Elevating Work Platform. It raises an operator vertically on a folding scissor mechanism, so it lifts people by definition and the six month interval applies. This holds for every type we examine, from small electric units used indoors to heavy rough-terrain diesel machines on construction sites.
The same rule covers the rest of the powered access family, which is why a MEWP inspection on a boom lift or cherry picker runs to the same six month cycle.
Six months is not the only check a scissor lift needs
This is where most confusion sits. The six monthly thorough examination is one of three separate things, and passing one does not cover the others.
Daily pre-use checks
Before each shift, the operator should walk round the machine and run a function test. Tyres, hydraulic leaks, guardrails, gates, controls, emergency lowering, emergency stop and the pothole protection bars. It takes a few minutes and it catches the faults that develop between visits.
These checks are the operator's responsibility, not a competent person's, and they should be recorded.
Interim inspections
Where a scissor lift works in conditions that cause deterioration, an inspection between thorough examinations may be needed. Heavy site use, wet or corrosive environments and machines that move between sites all point that way. This is a lighter check than a thorough examination, but it should still be recorded.
Scissor lifts are also work equipment, so PUWER applies to the parts that have nothing to do with lifting. Brakes, steering, tyres and guarding sit under PUWER examinations rather than LOLER, and a machine can need both.
The six monthly thorough examination
This is the statutory one. A competent person examines every safety-critical part, forms a view on whether the machine is safe for continued use, and issues a written report. Routine servicing is not a substitute. As HSE sets out in its guidance on the thorough examination of lifting equipment, the examination may point to poor maintenance but it does not replace maintenance.
When a scissor lift needs examining outside the six month cycle
Several events bring an examination forward. In our experience these are the ones that catch operators out:
Before first use, unless the machine is new and carries a declaration of conformity made less than twelve months earlier.
After assembly or installation at a new site, where safety depends on how the equipment is installed.
After damage or failure, including an impact, an overload or a component breaking.
After a long period out of use, for example a machine that sat idle over a shutdown.
After a major change in operating conditions, such as a machine moving from indoor warehouse work to an exposed outdoor site.
After modification or significant repair to a safety-critical part such as the scissor arms, pins or lift cylinders.
The last one comes up more than people expect. A repair to the structure resets the clock in practical terms, because the machine that was examined six months ago is no longer the machine standing in the yard.
When a different interval applies
Two situations change the six month default.
A written scheme of examination. Regulation 9 allows a competent person to draw up a scheme setting intervals different from the standard six or twelve months, based on the risk and how the equipment is used. A scheme can shorten the interval as well as lengthen it, and for hard-worked machines shortening is often the right call. The scheme has to be in writing and drawn up by someone competent to do it.
Static lift tables used only for goods. A fixed scissor lift table that raises pallets or stock and never carries a person is lifting equipment for loads, so the twelve month interval applies. The moment anyone can ride it, it becomes people-lifting equipment and drops back to six months. If in doubt, treat it as six.
Records you have to keep
The competent person gives you a written report after each examination. Keep it until the next report is issued or for two years, whichever is longer.
If the examination finds a defect that carries an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury, the competent person must tell you straight away and send a copy of the report to the enforcing authority. That is a legal duty on them, not a discretion, so there is no version of this where a serious defect quietly stays between you and the engineer.
Pre-use check sheets and interim inspection records are worth keeping too. When something goes wrong, the paper trail showing daily checks were happening is what demonstrates the machine was being managed properly.
What happens if the interval is missed
A scissor lift outside its examination date should not be in use. Running one is a breach of LOLER, and it is one of the more straightforward things for an inspector to establish, since the report either exists and is in date or it does not.
The commercial consequences usually bite first. Principal contractors ask for current certificates before a machine comes on site, and insurers take a dim view of a claim involving equipment that was out of examination. A machine sitting idle waiting for an engineer costs far more than the examination itself.
Hired scissor lifts
If you hire a scissor lift, the hire company normally holds responsibility for the thorough examination and supplies a current report with the machine. Check the date on arrival rather than assuming, particularly on a long hire where the six month point may fall mid-contract.
Duties under LOLER follow control of the equipment, so the pre-use checks and safe operation remain yours while the machine is on your site. The same applies to plant you own outright, where the whole cycle of LOLER examinations sits with you as the duty holder.
Comments