COVID-19 Re Opening Business and Work Equipment
Are you able to continue trading following social distancing guidance and increased welfare/ sanitizing provisions?
COVID-19 Re Opening Business and Work Equipment
Are you able to continue trading following social distancing guidance and increased welfare/sanitizing provisions?
As a business owner you may find yourself with limited numbers of staff either because they are self-isolating, home working, are non-essential or other reasons, but you have work that still needs doing. You might find this tricky to manage from a production or service providers point of view, but I must remind you to keep your eye on the clear fact that your health and safety obligations will remain constant.
What I mean by this in basic terms is equipment will still need to be maintained and compliant with either insurers or regulatory requirements if they are being used AND staff will still need to be trained and competent to carryout specific roles, use specific equipment or carry out specific processes.
Things that should be considered might be with regards to ‘Lifting equipment’ (lifts, forklift trucks, scissor lifts etc). Regulation states that equipment for lifting persons must undergo statutory thorough examinations every 6 months, so if your pedestrian lift for example was last inspected in November, this will expire in May…
And this is where life may get particularly challenging…
Things that should be considered might be with regards to ‘Lifting equipment’ (lifts, forklift trucks, scissor lifts etc). Regulation states that equipment for lifting persons must undergo statutory thorough examinations every 6 months, so if your pedestrian lift for example was last inspected in November, this will expire in May…
You might get in contact with your regular Competent Service provider to find they are not currently trading… then what? You may be lucky and contact another similar company or have a ‘plan B’ up your sleeve…. Or you may not. So what do you do? Take your chances and use the lift anyway hoping the authorities or regulators may look kindly on the situation? Hope the lift remains sound in the meantime so that no one is aware of any issues and keep your fingers crossed.
My advice is simple and might apply for most types of work equipment that have any kind of statutory testing linked to them that falls out of date:
- If you don’t need to use that item of equipment/vehicle etc, or have an alternative that is still in date, use that…
- Don’t assume, and don’t take the risk. Contact the regulating body/enforcing authorities to see if any allowances have been made in this abnormal time. For example MOT’s have been given 6 month’s grace, does something similar apply to your equipment?
- Contact your insurance company. Ultimately, they are the ones who will be expected to pay out should any incident occur where there is loss, so what scope are they willing to allow?
- Depending on the level of inspection required, is it possible to carry out a partial inspection or get someone else to do an inspection?
- Revisit the necessity of the inspection, is it lawful or just best practice? For example, Legionella in your water system would infect many at once for certain if not maintained, but other equipment may not be such a priority.
Make a list of any equipment you have that has such requirements on it and work through the list to make sure you are ahead of the game. Include things such as: Lifting Equipment; Pressure Systems; Legionella testing; Vehicle maintenance/MOT; Gas appliances, Fire Safety Equipment.