What governs UK lift safety?

The cornerstone UK regulation for in-service lift safety. LOLER requires that lifting equipment is strong, suitable, properly installed, safely positioned and — critically — thoroughly examined by a competent person at defined intervals.

PUWER covers the day-to-day use, maintenance and information requirements for any equipment used at work. For lifts, it complements LOLER by addressing routine maintenance, training and information.

The UK Regulations transposing the EU Lifts Directive — covering the design, manufacture and conformity assessment of new lifts. Schedule 18 sets out the quality assurance routes installers and modernisers must follow.

The current European safety standard for new lifts in the UK and EU. Replaced the older EN 81-1 (traction) and EN 81-2 (hydraulic) in 2017, with tighter requirements around car-top working space, refuge spaces in the pit, and protection against unintended car movement.

Companion standard to EN 81-20. Defines the test regimes for safety components — governors, safety gear, buffers, ascending-car overspeed protection — that go into a compliant lift.

Sets the additional requirements for a lift designated as a firefighters lift — secondary power supply, water-resistant equipment, an FFL switch at the fire-access level, and protected lift wells and lobbies.

Defines how a normal (non-firefighters) lift behaves when a fire signal is received from the building fire alarm — automatic recall to a designated level and parking with doors open.

The British Standard covering safe working practice for engineers carrying out maintenance, inspection, examination, modernisation and installation work on lifts. Effectively the rulebook every competent lift engineer works to in the UK.

Where a lift forms part of the accessible route into or within a building, it must meet defined dimensions, controls and signage requirements. EN 81-70 (passenger lifts) and EN 81-41 (platform lifts) set the technical detail.