A Thorough Examination is the detailed, independent inspection of lifting equipment and lifting accessories required under LOLER, carried out by a competent person at set intervals. It is the statutory check that confirms a machine is safe to lift with — and the resulting Report of Thorough Examination is the certificate a hire company must hold, and hand over, before the kit goes to work on a UK site.
Why a Thorough Examination is non-negotiable
A Thorough Examination is not the same thing as a service, and treating it as one is where operators come unstuck. A service keeps the machine running; a Thorough Examination is an independent assessment of whether it is safe to lift — the difference matters because the report is the document HSE, the hirer and the insurer all look for after something goes wrong.
Send out a forklift, telehandler or MEWP without a current Report of Thorough Examination and the hire is illegal before it leaves the gate. The certificate is also the first thing a site safety officer asks for at the gate, and the first thing missing from the file when an insurer is looking for a reason not to pay.
How a Thorough Examination works
The examination is carried out by a competent person — independent of the day-to-day maintenance — who inspects, sometimes tests, and writes a formal report. The interval depends on what the equipment lifts.
- Equipment that lifts people (MEWPs, passenger hoists): every 6 months.
- Equipment that lifts loads only (forklifts, telehandlers, cranes): every 12 months.
- Lifting accessories (slings, shackles, chains, eyebolts): every 6 months, regardless of value.
- Or to an interval set by a written scheme of examination drawn up by a competent person.
- An extra examination is due after exceptional circumstances — damage, major repair, or a long period out of use.
- The competent person issues the Report of Thorough Examination within 28 days; it is kept for at least 2 years and travels with the equipment.
- Defects that are an existing or imminent danger must be reported to the enforcing authority.
Common mistakes
The four traps that account for most of the bad answers we hear when we ask operators about Thorough Examination.
- Confusing the Thorough Examination with the routine service. They answer different questions and the law only recognises one of them.
- Letting the engineer who maintains the machine also examine it. LOLER expects genuine independence and competence — the two roles are best kept apart.
- Missing the tighter 6-month clock on people-lifting kit and accessories, and applying the 12-month interval to everything.
- Filing the report and never handing it to the hirer. They are entitled to it, and most site insurance will not engage without one on the day.
How MovoGo handles Thorough Examination
MovoGo stores the Report of Thorough Examination against each asset and accessory, counts down the 6- or 12-month clock on the booking screen, and stops you releasing kit whose examination has lapsed — so the certificate is always current, on file and ready to travel with the hire.
The terms most often confused with, or directly tied to, Thorough Examination.
- LOLER — The UK regulation that requires every piece of rental lifting equipment to carry a current Thorough Examination certificate from a competent person.
- PUWER — The UK regulation that requires work equipment to be suitable, safe, maintained and used only by trained people — the floor every hire has to clear.
- MEWP — A Mobile Elevating Work Platform — scissor lift, boom lift or vertical mast — used to lift people to work safely at height.
- Condition report — Time-stamped, photographed and signed record of equipment condition at handover and return — the document that turns damage disputes into invoices.
- Back to the full glossary
Tomas is co-founder and CEO of MovoGo. With a background in tech startups and a drive to solve complex problems, he leads the company's mission to digitise the construction industry.
