How Long to Keep LOLER Records: UK Requirements

2 years minimum

The minimum retention period for examination reports on equipment taken out of service. For in-service equipment: retain until the next examination report is received.

How long do you actually need to keep the records?

Regulation 11 of LOLER 1998 requires duty holders to keep "records of examinations, tests and repairs to equipment" for the periods specified in the Schedule. This covers every thorough examination report, every defect record, and every repair carried out following a defect finding.

The answer to how long depends on the status of your equipment. Regulation 11 of LOLER 1998 places a legal obligation on you, the duty holder, to keep examination records and produce them on request to the enforcing authority. The retention period varies depending on whether the equipment is in service, out of service, or subject to a written examination scheme. The HSE recommends retaining all records for the full life of the equipment, regardless of the legal minimum.

Retention periods at a glance

Situation	Minimum retention period	Reg. basis
Equipment still in service	Until the next thorough examination report is received	Reg. 11(2)(a)
Equipment taken out of service	2 years from date of last examination	Reg. 11(2)(b)
Equipment under examination scheme	Until equipment ceases to be used, or until further scheme report received	Reg. 11(3)
Pre-use examination (new equipment)	Keep for life of equipment	Best practice, HSE guidance
Lifting accessories (6-month interval)	Until next 6-month report received	Reg. 11(2)(a)

Practical advice:The legal minimum is "until the next report." In practice, the HSE recommends keeping all examination records for the full life of the equipment. The cost of storing digital records is negligible. A complete history is invaluable in an incident investigation or insurance claim. Do not delete old records just because the regulations technically allow it.

Which documents do you need to keep?

Under Regulation 11, you must retain the following. See the LOLER record keeping guide for full details. Each examination record must be a complete Schedule 1-compliant report:

The written report of every thorough examination, containing all Schedule 1 fields
Any written evidence of conformity obtained before putting equipment into service for the first time
Records of defects found and actions taken
Evidence of repairs made following Category A or B defect findings
The examination scheme, if one is in operation, including any amendments

What happens if your records are lost or incomplete?

In an HSE inspection, the inspector will ask to see examination records. If you cannot produce them, you cannot prove compliance. Absence of records is treated as evidence of non-compliance, regardless of whether the examinations actually took place. It does not matter that the work was done if you cannot show it.

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Improvement notice

HSE requires you to produce records or have equipment re-examined within a set period.

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Equipment prohibition

HSE can prohibit use of the equipment until valid examination records are produced.

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Prosecution

Persistent failure to maintain records is prosecuted under Regulation 11. Unlimited fine.

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Insurance implications

If an incident occurs and records cannot be produced, insurers may refuse the claim.

Paper vs digital: why digital records win every time

Paper records

✗Can be lost, damaged, or destroyed by fire or flood

✗Difficult to search and retrieve quickly under audit

✗Easy to misfile or lose individual sheets

✗Physical storage space required

✗No automatic retention policy enforcement

Digital records (Lolerflow)

✓Backed up automatically, no risk of physical loss

✓Searchable by asset, date, client, or examiner

✓Tamper-evident, cannot be altered after signing

✓Instant retrieval for HSE audit or insurance claim

✓Retention alerts ensure no report is missed

How long must LOLER records be kept?+

Under Regulation 11 of LOLER 1998: examination reports for in-service equipment must be kept until the next examination report is produced. For equipment taken out of service, reports must be kept for at least 2 years. For equipment under a written examination scheme, reports must be retained until the equipment ceases to be used or a further scheme report has been obtained.

What happens if LOLER records are lost?+

You cannot demonstrate compliance. In an HSE inspection, absence of records is treated as evidence of non-compliance. You cannot simply claim the examinations took place. The HSE can issue an improvement notice or prosecute under Regulation 11. Practically, you will need to have the equipment re-examined before it can be used again, at your own cost.

Does LOLER require paper records, or can records be digital?+

Digital records are fully acceptable under LOLER. The requirement is that records are kept and made available for inspection. There is no requirement for paper. A compliant digital system with tamper-evident records and instant retrieval satisfies Regulation 11 and is far easier to produce in an audit.

What happens to records when equipment changes hands

When lifting equipment is sold, transferred, or gifted, the examination reports must go with it. Regulation 11(1) places the record-keeping obligation on the duty holder. When ownership changes, that obligation passes to the new owner. They need the records to establish the examination history and know when the next thorough examination is due.

Without that history, the new owner cannot show the required interval has not lapsed. In practice, they must treat the equipment as unexamined and arrange a fresh thorough examination before putting it into service. That cost is avoidable if the seller transfers the records correctly.

Records after an incident: why the audit trail matters most then

If lifting equipment is involved in an incident or a near-miss, your examination reports become evidence. Preserve them immediately. Do not destroy, amend, or move them. The HSE can request them under RIDDOR and under their powers of inspection under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. If the equipment was examined but the report is lost, you cannot show due diligence. Missing records are treated as evidence of systemic non-compliance, not an administrative oversight.

Practical step: Records potentially relevant to an incident should be backed up to a second location immediately, before any investigation begins. A cloud-based system does this automatically. Paper records should be photocopied and stored separately as soon as an incident is reported.

Four common record-keeping mistakes that put you at risk

Discarding previous examination reports

Regulation 11 requires reports to be kept until the equipment ceases to be used (or until the next report for in-service equipment). HSE guidance recommends retaining all historical reports for the full life of the equipment. Discarding older reports leaves gaps that cannot be reconstructed.

Keeping records with the equipment rather than centrally

Records must be available for inspection on request, which means they need to be in a place where they can be found and produced quickly. A report tucked inside a crane cab or attached to a sling with a cable tie is not a compliant record system.

Confusing maintenance records with examination reports

Maintenance records (service logs, repair invoices) and LOLER thorough examination reports are different documents with different legal status. A maintenance service record does not satisfy the requirement for a Schedule 1 thorough examination report. Both types are useful; they are not interchangeable.

Not recording defect remediation

Where a Category B defect is found and repaired, the repair must be documented and the equipment re-examined if required. Keeping the original defect report without evidence of remedial action leaves an unresolved defect on the compliance record.

What record-keeping looks like at scale

Consider a company with 100 assets examined twice a year. That is 200 examination reports per year. Over five years, that is 1,000 documents. Retrieving a specific report from five years ago from a paper filing system, during an unannounced HSE visit, is a very different task from typing a serial number into a digital system and finding it in ten seconds.

Digital records do not just satisfy the legal requirement more easily. They make your compliance position visibly stronger. Use LOLER inspection software to maintain a complete, searchable, audit-ready record of every thorough examination your team carries out.

Manage your LOLER inspections digitally with Lolerflow.

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How Long Must LOLER Examination Reports Be Kept?