Health and Safety Executive

FAQs

What license do I need to operate mobile plant in the workplace?

There are no government issued licenses for vehicles at work, the law requires that each operator is given adequate training by their employer so that they are competent to operate the machinery which they use (the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998; regulation 9).

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Who are the 6 accrediting bodies for lift truck training?

The six bodies are:

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How do I contact these bodies?

Lantra Awards
Lantra House
Stoneleigh Park
Coventry
Warwickshire
CV8 2LG
Tel: 024 7641 9703
Fax: 024 7641 1665
Website: www.lantra-awards.co.uk
e-mail: awards@lantra.co.uk

National Plant Operators Registration Scheme
PO Box 204
Northwich
Cheshire
CW9 7FY
Tel: 01606 351240

RTITB Limited
Access House
Halesfield 17
Telford
TF7 4PW
Tel: 01952 520200

Independent Training Standards Scheme and Register
Armstrong House
28 Broad Street
Wokingham
Berkshire
RG40 1AB
Tel: 0118 989 3229

Association of Industrial Truck Trainers
Unit 20
The Springboard Centre (Coalville) Limited
Mantle Lane
Coalville
Leicestershire
LE67 3DW
Tel: 01530 277 857

Construction Industry Training Board
Bircham Newton
King's Lynn
Norfolk
PE31 6RH
Tel: 01485 577 577
or 01485 577 877

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I work for a company which runs its own in house training scheme which is not accredited by any of these bodies. Is this legal?

As long as the training you are given means that you are competent to operate the machinery you use safely, then there is no absolute legal duty to use the accredited system.

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I operate plant other than lift trucks, what is the licensing system for that?

There is no HSE approved system for training plant operators other than lift truck operators. There is still a legal duty for every employer to ensure that their employers are adequately trained for the machinery they operate (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 regulation 9), there are many different schemes in operation, each employer should satisfy themselves that training under the schemes they accept means that operators are competent to use each piece of equipment that they will be required to operate.

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My employer will not accept my training certificate as valid, and is insisting that I retrain to a different scheme. Is this legal?

Employers are entitled to require their plant operators to be trained to any scheme which they think is appropriate to their workplace, as long as completion of the training certificate the company chooses means that employees are competent to operate the mobile plant they will be using.

For rider operated lift trucks, the HSE recognizes each of the six accrediting bodies equally, but has no powers to dictate to companies which of the schemes they accept.

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Do I need a valid UK car driving license in order to operate plant in the workplace?

No, driving a car and operating mobile plant are very different tasks, although they use some of the same skills. There is no legal requirement for plant operators to hold a road driving license unless they wish to drive their vehicles on the public highway. All plant driven on the public highway must comply with the appropriate road traffic legislation.

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I have moved jobs and lost my lift truck training certificate. Can I get a copy from HSE?

There is no state system for training of lift truck operators as there is for drivers on the public highway. There is therefore no central organisation which holds copies of training certificates. To obtain a duplicate of your certificate of basic training you will need to contact the training provider who trained you and issued the original, or your previous employer, or the body which accredited the training. If you cannot obtain a duplicate then your new employer may wish to have you assessed and re-tested.

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It is over three years since I did my basic lift truck training. My employer has refused to send me on refresher training. Is he obliged to provide additional training?

There is no specific requirement to provide refresher training after set intervals, but even trained and experienced lift truck operators need to be re-assessed from time to time to ensure that they continue to operate lift trucks safely. In addition to routine safety monitoring, re-assessment might be appropriate where operators have not used trucks for some time, are occasional users, appear to have developed unsafe working practices, have had an accident or near miss, or there is a change in their working practices or environment.

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I have never had any formal training to drive a lift truck. What are the legal requirements?

Your employer has a general duty under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to provide information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure the health and safety of their employees. Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 employers are required to "ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including training in the methods which may be adopted when using the work equipment, any risks which such use may entail and precautions to be taken." The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 also places duties on employers to provide training for lift truck operators. By not providing you with any training at all, your employer could be breaking the law.

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I thought pedestrian-operated lift trucks (POLTs) did not count as workplace transport. So surely I don't need to provide training on them for my employees?

Opinion is divided about whether POLTs count as workplace transport. However, that has very little bearing on their status under law. There are legal requirements for training and competence in operating them.

Relevant guidance or legislation

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) Approved Code of Practice (L22) and PUWER Open Learning Guidance apply to POLTS, and regulation 9 sets out the level of training employers must provide.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 section 2.2.C also applies.

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What is the minimum age at which people can operate plant?

Unlike guidance for drivers of forklift trucks, where lift truck operators should be over the minimum school leaving age (except in docks where they must be at least 18 years old), there is nothing specific for plant.

Relevant guidance or legislation

We rely on guidance in Young people at work - health and safety in the workplace.

There are particular definitions of people by age in health and safety law:

  • a young person is anyone under eighteen years of age;
  • a child is anyone who is not over compulsory school age. (He or she has not yet reached the official age at which they may leave school). This is generally referred to as the minimum school leaving age (MSLA).

The Management Regulations 1999 require you to assess the health and safety risks to all your employees and to identify what you need to do to comply with your legal duties to prevent or control those risks and ensure your employees' health and safety. Under the Regulations you have particular responsibilities towards young people:

  • to assess risks to all young people under 18 years of age, before they start work;
  • to ensure your risk assessment takes into account their psychological or physical immaturity, inexperience, and lack of awareness of existing or potential risks;
  • to introduce control measures to eliminate or minimise the risks, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Children below the MSLA must not be employed in industrial undertakings such as factories, construction sites etc except when on approved work experience schemes.

Children under 13 years of age are generally prohibited from any form of employment and local authorities have powers to make bylaws on the types of work, and hours of work, children aged between 13 years and the MSLA can do. However, children below these age limits may be licensed to take part in performances. The licence must be issued by the relevant local authority for all children below the MSLA, taking account of their fitness and arrangements for their health, kind treatment and education as appropriate to their age.

A lot of HSG165 is derived from the EC Directive on the topic (94/33/EEC - Protection of Young People at Work). Table 1 (Work beyond psychological or physical capacity) gives a pointer in respect of driving:

'Young people may not be physically capable of driving or operating machinery designed for adults and they may not have the strength to operate the controls with ease.'

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Do drivers of forklift trucks have to undertake a medical, and if so, when?

At present HSE is not prescriptive on medicals for fitness to drive forklift trucks and there is no legislation relating directly to this topic.

Relevant guidance or legislation

We do issue guidance and this can be found in Safety in working with lift trucks (HSG6).

We have adopted the standards published by the Drivers' Medical Unit at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and these can be found at DVLA - At a glance guide to the current medical standards of fitness to drive

These standards should be applied and adapted in line with any risk assessment carried out by the employer/dutyholder. Each person's fitness for operating a lift truck should be judged individually, with an underlying emphasis on matching the requirements of a particular task with the fitness and abilities of the driver.

For most work a standard equivalent to that for the Group 1 entitlement (DVLA medical standards) would be appropriate.

More stringent activities, such as working in a particularly demanding environment, working at night, moving highly toxic or explosive materials etc, would probably be more appropriate to the Group 2 entitlement.

Applying the principle of individual assessment of fitness should ensure that people with disabilities are not disadvantaged but competence in an emergency must always be considered.

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Is there a legal requirement for fire extinguishers to be fitted to dumper trucks?

General health and safety legislation requires a risk assessment to be carried out on all work equipment, including dumper trucks, and if the assessment identified a need for fitting a fire extinguisher then it should be provided. However, this would be dependent on the particular case and is not a blanket requirement.

Relevant guidance

A number of HSE publications give general guidance for construction sites, including:

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What is HSE's position on wearing seat belts while driving forklift trucks?

Seat restraint does not need to be provided on vehicles unlikely to overturn.

Relevant guidance

Fitting and use of restraining systems on lift trucks (MISC241): 'It [seat restraint] is not required if the stability characteristics of the lift truck are sufficient to prevent overturning, taking into account all the situations in which it is used. Nor is it required on masted trucks which can only roll over through 90° if the operator cannot be trapped between the truck and the ground, eg if the truck has a cab with self-closing and latching doors which have no facilities for retaining them open in use.

Lift trucks with a side-seated operator and cab access from the rear (eg masted reach trucks), or which have a stand-on operator, are not required to have operator restraint. The operator is unlikely to be trapped between the lift truck and the ground in the event of an overturn.'

MISC 241 also covers where restraint should be used.

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When can cages be used on forklift trucks?

Working platforms or 'cages' on forklift trucks are 'non-integrated', ie the forklift driver controls the movement of the truck including the cage. There are no controls in the cage to control the truck or cage movement.

The use of non-integrated platforms for planned work is not allowed as there is now other purpose-built access equipment, such as the wide variety of mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs), which are better suited to carrying out work at heights and which offers a higher level of safety for the person using the platform. These are readily available for hire.

Relevant guidance or legislation

HSE Guidance Note PM28 'Working platforms (non-integrated) on forklift trucks' gives advice on the use of these and clarifies what the law says. It sets out the current standard for use of non-integrated platforms, ie for 'occasional use' only.

PM28 also gives guidance on what 'occasional use' means. It clearly states that non-integrated platforms should only be used for work which is 'exceptional', ie is the exception to the rule. Exceptional work would include unplanned work such as the changing of a single lightbulb as an emergency job. This definition does not include stocktaking or planned maintenance work such as cleaning the light fittings in a factory, window cleaning etc. For jobs like that a mobile elevated work platform (MEWP) with integral controls, such as a scissor lift, should be used.

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Why haven't reversing alarms and other proximity-sensing devices been introduced more widely?

HSE has examined the use of radar and other proximity sensing devices and their use is not recommended for preventing accidents to pedestrians where the level of unwanted alarms would be loud for drivers to tolerate or the range of the system may not be sufficient.

Sensing systems may have a role to play on open sites where the likelihood and frequency of unwanted alarms are low and where the driver may not have the time or is unlikely to use CCTV.

Sensing systems are being increasingly used on road-going vehicles as parking aids, but the range of such systems is limited, - typically around 2 metres.

Reversing alarms are of limited value as they may be drowned out by ambient noise or they may be so common on a busy site that pedestrians do not take any notice. There is also the issue that deaf people cannot hear them.

Road-going vehicles will be fitted with conventional side mirrors and it is often worthwhile augmenting these with additional convex mirrors to improve side visibility but there can still be significant blindspots when reversing and especially when turning at the same time.

CCTV can eliminate the blindspots. Discussions with firms who have fitted CCTV systems reveal that the systems are a very useful aid for precise positioning of the vehicle, removing the need for signallers in many cases. Users have also found that installing CCTV can significantly reduce the number of reversing incidents.

Relevant guidance or legislation

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) will apply to road-going vehicles for use at work. HSE's guide to the PUWER Regulations (L22) states: 'Where vehicles are designed primarily for travel on public roads, compliance with the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 will normally be sufficient to comply with Part III of PUWER 1998.'

However, there may often be situations where the frequency and difficulty of reversing movements, especially for LGVs, creates a significant workplace risk to pedestrians, where measures additional to those in the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, eg CCTV, are needed and are reasonably practicable.

For workplace vehicles supplied for use mainly off the road, the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 (SMSR) apply, and hence such vehicles are subject to the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) including EHSR 3.2.1, which concerns visibility from the driving position.

It is important to note that this is not the case for vehicles designed for normal road use. SMSR Schedule 5 specifically excludes: '...vehicles and their trailers intended solely for transporting passengers by...road...as well as means of transport...designed for transporting goods on public road...networks', though 'vehicles used in the mineral extraction industry shall not be excluded'. So vehicles mainly travelling on the road are exempted from SMSR with the exception of those vehicles used in the mineral extraction industry .

PUWER Regulations 17(3)(a) and 28(e) both apply to road-going vehicles used on work sites, and both are qualified by the phrase 'so far as is reasonably practicable'. Regulation 17(3)(a) can already be used to require the provision of CCTV or other reversing aids where site conditions warrant it.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations will apply to the use of vehicles on a work site and on the road, although in most cases the provisions of the Road Traffic Act and subsidiary Regulations will have primacy as far as use on the road is concerned.

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Do audible reversing alarms have to be fitted to workplace vehicles that mainly operate off the public highway?

Reversing alarms are not mandatory because we would not want drivers to become over-reliant on them at the expense of not checking for rear hazards. Certain vulnerable road users, such as the elderly or children, might not be able to hear or be aware of the dangers signified by reversing alarms.

Relevant guidance or legislation

Off the public highway, reversing alarms are covered by regulation 24 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER). The key point to remember though is that warnings are not appropriate unless they are unmistakable in signalling danger, eg they may not be suitable if the working environment is noisy or if any employees are wearing ear protection, or have a hearing impairment. Also it must be possible for workers to distinguish at once between:

  • different audible warnings; and
  • warnings and any other unrelated signals operating at the same time.

On roads with public access, reversing alarms can be used as an aid to safety on goods vehicles over 2000 kg gross weight, buses, engineering plant and works trucks.

Advice in the Highway Code states that it is the responsibility of all drivers, irrespective of vehicle size, to reverse with care and get someone to guide them if they cannot see clearly.

Employers also have a duty under health and safety legislation to conduct their business in such a way that people are not put at risk. Depending on the nature of their business and activities, they have to decide whether this might be aided by fitting reversing alarms or other reversing aids to their vehicles. Employers should also ensure that their employees are adequately trained.

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Is it to illegal to use aisle trucks to load lorries?

Very narrow aisle trucks and order pickers are normally designed to run on very flat and level floors, they have tiny wheels and there is a risk of overturn if they run on uneven surfaces as are often found in yards. They may be loading lorries in the warehouse, which should be OK.

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Should a 'thorough examination' and a maintenance service on mechanical handling equipment be carried out by the same engineer at the same time?

The two functions should be separated.

Relevant legislation and guidance

This separation of functions is supported by documents such as UKAS RG6 and EN ISO 17020, the recent guidance on the maintenance and thorough examination of tower cranes, and BITA guidance noted GN28, and the views of ME inspectors.

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