Many businesses apply 12-month intervals to all lifting equipment, including chains, slings, and shackles. Lifting accessories require examination every 6 months. This is a very common HSE finding during inspections.
How often does each piece of equipment need checking?
LOLER inspection frequency is set by Regulation 9 of LOLER 1998. The thorough examination interval is either 6 months or 12 months, depending on the type of equipment. The HSE guidance on thorough examinations sets out how these intervals apply in practice. A written examination scheme prepared by a competent person can vary these defaults, but only where justified by risk assessment.
Quick reference: every equipment type and its required interval
| Equipment | Interval | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Passenger hoists, lifts, MEWPs (persons) | 6 months | Reg 9(3)(a) |
| Chains, wire ropes, textile slings | 6 months | Reg 9(3)(a) |
| Shackles, hooks, eyebolts, swivels | 6 months | Reg 9(3)(a) |
| Spreader beams, lifting frames | 6 months | Reg 9(3)(a) |
| Overhead travelling cranes | 12 months | Reg 9(3)(b) |
| Mobile cranes | 12 months | Reg 9(3)(b) |
| Fork lift trucks | 12 months (truck) / 6 months (forks) | Reg 9(3)(a)+(b) |
| Fixed electric chain hoists (goods only) | 12 months | Reg 9(3)(b) |
| Vehicle inspection lifts | 12 months | Reg 9(3)(b) |
| Equipment under examination scheme | Per scheme | Reg 9(3)(c) |
Can you change the standard inspection intervals?
LOLER Regulation 9(3) gives duty holders two routes to compliant thorough examination intervals. The first is to follow the statutory defaults: 6 months for person-carrying equipment and lifting accessories, 12 months for all other lifting equipment. The second is to have a competent person prepare a written examination scheme that specifies different intervals based on risk assessment and engineering judgement. Once a written scheme exists, it becomes the legal basis for the examination programme.
A written scheme can specify shorter or longer intervals than the defaults. But only where the competent person can justify the change. An extension to 18 or 24 months for a heavily loaded overhead crane in a hostile environment would be very difficult to justify. A shorter interval, such as quarterly examination for a crane in a corrosive atmosphere, may well be required.
Under Regulation 9 LOLER 1998, the scheme must be in writing and available for inspection. A verbal agreement does not qualify. For most inspection companies, the default 6 and 12-month intervals apply.
Every equipment type and what interval applies
The intervals below reflect the LOLER 1998 default positions where no written examination scheme is in place:
When does equipment need checking more often than the standard interval?
Even without a formal written scheme, certain situations require a competent person to consider whether the default interval is adequate. These four circumstances commonly justify more frequent examination:
In all four cases below, the competent person may require examination outside the routine schedule. Proceeding without examination where any of these conditions apply is a breach of LOLER and creates serious legal exposure.
How do you track all these renewal dates without missing one?
When you manage dozens or hundreds of assets across multiple clients, tracking 6-month and 12-month renewal dates manually is the single biggest source of compliance risk. Spreadsheets do not alert you. Paper records require someone to check them. Purpose-built LOLER software tracks every asset's next due date automatically and alerts you before anything goes overdue.
When you know the right interval, the next step is making sure your examiner covers every safety-critical component on the day. Download a free LOLER inspection checklist for each equipment type, and use our free LOLER inspection templates to produce the Schedule 1 report on site.
A business managing 100 assets will have assets on both 6-month and 12-month cycles. That means potentially 30 to 50 separate examination due dates spread across the year. Spreadsheets fail not because the data is wrong, but because there is no alert mechanism and cells can be edited without an audit trail. A single missed due date, discovered during an HSE inspection, becomes evidence of systemic non-compliance.