Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Press Releases
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) here reviews the legal considerations applying to lifts, considers specific issues relating to horizontal sliding doors, and sets out some remedial measures which should be considered by those responsible for the design, installation, use and maintenance of horizontal sliding doors.
New lifts supplied after 30 June 1999 must comply with the Lifts Regulations 1997.
Lifts installed prior to 30 June must comply with section 6 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Lifts in use must comply with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR); the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER); and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER).
Regulation 3 of MHSWR requires all employers and self-employed people to assess the risks to workers and any others who may be affected by their work or business. The risk assessment should be suitable and sufficient. It should identify people who may be harmed by the hazard, including members of the public.
In relation to lift maintenance, the lift owner has the primary duty and reference should be made to Regulation 5 of PUWER which essentially requires 'work equipment' to be maintained so that it is safe and its performance does not deteriorate to the extent that it puts people at risk.
For those premises where the lift is primarily for use by members of the public the lift owner still has to satisfy the requirements of sections 3 & 4 of the Health and Safety at Work etc.Act 1974. However the requirements of MHSWR, PUWER and LOLER will provide a guide to satisfying these legal duties.
Lift landing entrances can be prone to vandalism with lift landing doors being subjected to physical damage. This form of abuse to landing doors is likely to be more prevalent where lifts are installed in public buildings and public areas such as local authority housing, shopping precincts, multi-storey car parks and areas which are unobserved.
If you are an owner or have responsibility for the operation of a lift used in a public area or public building, you will need to ensure that landing entrances and doors are designed and constructed in order to withstand the anticipated risk of vandalism and physical abuse.
You will also need to make sure that effective and appropriate arrangements are in place to ensure that lift landing doors are maintained in a safe operating condition, including regular checks by the lift maintenance engineer of the door retaining system. We recommend that these checks include:
Such checks are expected to form part of a preventive maintenance programme for the lift.
Competent persons carrying out a thorough examination of a lift will need to ensure that they examine the condition of the landing door retaining system. The risks that could arise from the failure of the door retaining system will determine how thorough the examination needs to be.
On some types of horizontal sliding landing door construction there is a recess at the underside of the door created by the door frame (see diagram) that, in some cases, may not provide adequate vertical support for some bottom door shoe assemblies. In such cases, the guide shoe may need to be provided with adequate vertical support.
Where it is reasonably foreseeable that lift landing doors could be subjected to vandalism and physical abuse, effective means may need to be considered for retaining the door panel in position if the guide shoe assemblies fail. If they are not fitted already, this may be achieved by the installation of sufficiently robust kicking plates / safety flanges to prevent the bottom of the door panel from being pushed into the lift well.
Where new installations are being made in public buildings and public areas they should be installed to BS5655 : Lifts and service lifts: Part 13 : 1995 - Recommendations for vandal resistant lifts. If you are a lift owner or have responsibility for lifts, we recommend that you take this British Standard into account when considering the adequacy of your existing arrangements.
As part of the maintenance arrangements, we would also encourage lift owners and maintenance engineers to keep legible records of remedial actions undertaken during maintenance and have in place simple effective systems which communicate to the lift owner, or his authorised representative, any concerns identified that may affect ongoing safety.
If you have any information, however brief, about accidents and near misses involving lift landing door retaining systems, please let us know as this kind of information is very valuable to HSE.
It would also be useful to learn more about the types, successes, etc. of recommended remedial measures, recognising that the improvements/measures recommended in this article are not exhaustive.
Such information will help us in providing future advice on this issue and will also be very useful when revisions of existing and drafting of new European Standards are being undertaken.
Any information should be sent to:-
Ian Britten, TD2, Room 437, Magdalen House, Stanley Precinct, Bootle, Merseyside L20 3QZ. e-mail: ian.britten@hse.gsi.gov.uk
For copies of the diagram please ring 020 7717 6904
: 7717 6016.
Call HSE's InfoLine, tel: 0845 345 0055
or write to: HSE Information Services, Caerphilly Park, Caerphilly
CF83 3GG.
Published on the HSE web site on 31 May 2002