How Often Is Equipment Checked Under PUWER? Setting the Right Interval
- Nexus Examination
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Most business owners want a simple answer here: check the kit every six or twelve months and move on. PUWER does not work like that, and assuming it does is how equipment ends up either over-inspected or quietly overdue. Here is how often equipment actually needs checking under PUWER, and how to set an interval that holds up.
How Often Is Equipment Checked Under PUWER?
There is no fixed interval under PUWER. Unlike LOLER, it does not set a six or twelve month cycle. Instead, equipment must be inspected after installation, at suitable intervals based on risk, and after any event that could affect its safety. You set the frequency from a risk assessment.
This catches a lot of people out, because they expect a single number. We carry out PUWER examinations across Berkshire and the surrounding counties, and the most common question we get is simply "how often", to which the honest answer is "it depends on the equipment".
When PUWER Inspections Are Required
PUWER, under Regulation 6, sets out the situations where an inspection must happen. As the HSE explains, these are:
After installation and before first use, and after moving it to a new site or location
At suitable intervals, where the equipment is exposed to conditions causing deterioration that could lead to danger
After exceptional circumstances, such as serious damage, a major modification, or a substantial change in how it is used
The first and last of these are clear-cut. It is the middle one, the "suitable intervals", that businesses have to work out for themselves.
What Counts as a "Suitable Interval"?
A suitable interval is whatever the risk genuinely justifies, decided through a risk assessment. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, because PUWER covers everything from a hand drill to a forging press.
In our experience, these are the factors that set the frequency:
The type of equipment and how it is built
How hard and how often it is used
The environment it works in, since wet, dusty or outdoor conditions wear kit faster
The manufacturer's recommendations
The equipment's own inspection and defect history
How serious the consequences would be if it failed
The interval is not fixed forever, either. If the inspection history shows negligible wear, you can extend it. If defects keep cropping up, you shorten it. Whether it is an axle stand inspection in a quiet workshop or plant working hard on a site, the date should reflect the real risk, not a number plucked from the air.
One word of warning: more inspection is not automatically safer. Over-testing things like emergency stops can actually wear them out, so the aim is the right interval, not the shortest one.
The One Exception: Power Presses
There is one piece of equipment with a fixed statutory cycle under PUWER. A power press working cold metal must be thoroughly examined by a competent person at least every six months if it has automatic, interlocking or photo-electric guards, and at least every twelve months if it has fixed guards or enclosed tools.
For everything else, the risk-based approach applies. Power presses are the exception that proves the rule.
Equipment Covered by Other Rules
Some of your kit may have fixed intervals after all, just not under PUWER itself. Lifting equipment also falls under LOLER, which sets six or twelve month thorough examinations, and pressure systems fall under PSSR with their own schemes.
Where one of these applies, meeting its requirements usually satisfies the PUWER inspection duty for that equipment too. So a forklift has a fixed LOLER interval, while a bench grinder does not. Both are work equipment, but they are governed differently.
Inspection Is Not the Same as Maintenance
This is the gap an inspector tends to find first. A service keeps equipment running. A PUWER inspection is the separate check that confirms it is safe, and the two need separate records.
A maintenance log full of oil changes and repairs does not, on its own, prove you have inspected the equipment for safety. In our experience, businesses with a clean compliance record keep the two clearly apart. A pre-use check by the operator is useful, but it is not a PUWER inspection either.
Getting Your PUWER Intervals Right
The practical approach is straightforward. Set each interval from a proper risk assessment, write down the reasoning, and review it against the defect history rather than leaving it untouched for years.
Keep the records, and treat the inspection as a separate job from the service. Our thorough examination services cover the formal inspection side, but the schedule itself should always come back to the real risk of the equipment in front of you.
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