CareHomeDeskCareHomeDeskThe Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 require that equipment used for lifting persons is thoroughly examined every 6 months. In care homes this means hoists, ceiling tracks, stairlifts and bath hoists -- and it is one of the most consistently missed compliance obligations.
Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), any equipment used to lift a person -- including mobile hoists, ceiling track hoists, bath hoists and stairlifts -- must undergo a thorough examination by a competent person at least every 6 months. This is a statutory duty on the employer, typically the registered provider or manager, and sits alongside duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Using a hoist without a current examination is a breach of the law, not just poor practice, and the duty applies regardless of whether the equipment is owned, leased or supplied by a third party such as the NHS wheelchair or equipment service.
A LOLER thorough examination is a detailed inspection carried out by a competent person, usually an engineer accredited by a body such as LEEA or holding equivalent recognised competence. It checks the structural integrity of the hoist, the condition of the mast, boom, spreader bar and attachment points, the operation of the lifting mechanism and brakes, battery and electrical safety, and the emergency lowering function. The examiner issues a written report of thorough examination (often called an EX2 or EX3 report) which must record any defects, whether they present an immediate risk, and a deadline for repair. This report is the legal evidence of compliance and must be retained and accessible.
Thorough examination under LOLER is a statutory legal check focused on safety-critical failure, separate from the manufacturer's routine servicing schedule, which covers general maintenance, lubrication, cleaning and wear-and-tear items to keep the hoist reliable and under warranty. A hoist can be serviced regularly by the manufacturer or a maintenance contractor and still be overdue for its LOLER examination, and vice versa. Care homes should hold both a servicing contract and a LOLER examination contract, and should not assume that a service visit satisfies the LOLER duty unless the engineer is confirmed as a competent person issuing a formal report of thorough examination.
A hoist with an overdue thorough examination must be taken out of use immediately and clearly labelled or removed from the care setting until a valid examination has been completed. Continuing to use it exposes residents to injury risk during transfer and exposes the provider to enforcement action from the Health and Safety Executive, including improvement notices, prohibition notices and, in serious cases, prosecution. CQC treats an overdue hoist examination as evidence against the Safe key question and will ask to see current certificates during inspection, so gaps in the schedule are highly visible to regulators even before any incident occurs.
Every hoist should be logged on an equipment register with its unique identifier, location, last examination date, next due date and the name of the competent person or company who examined it. Reports of thorough examination should be filed centrally, not left with maintenance staff or lost in email inboxes, and a simple traffic-light system or diary reminder should flag examinations due within the next month. Many enforcement and safeguarding findings arise not because no examination took place, but because the paperwork could not be produced quickly when asked, so accessibility of records matters as much as the examination itself.
The most frequent failing is treating the 6-monthly interval as a maximum rather than planning ahead, so examinations slip past their due date when an engineer is delayed or unavailable. Others include examining the hoist body but forgetting attached accessories such as slings and spreader bars, failing to remove a hoist from use immediately when a defect report flags an immediate risk, and not verifying that a contractor's engineer is genuinely a competent person under LOLER rather than a general handyman. Building in a buffer of several weeks before the statutory deadline, and confirming competence credentials when appointing a new contractor, avoids most of these problems.
CareHomeDesk gives you compliance checklists, maintenance logs, and contractor management tools built around exactly this kind of knowledge.