Passenger Lift Safety Policy Statement

(February 2022)

 

Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) recognises its responsibility for Passenger Lift Safety under the:

• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA)
• Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER)
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)
• Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publication “Managing for Health and Safety” (HSG 65)
• Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR)

 

This policy statement supports our Health and Safety Policy and sets out our approach to managing Passenger Lift safety.

 

It has been written to ensure the safety of all YHN staff, board members, volunteers, contractors, tenants and other members of the public who might be affected by passenger lifts under its control, including consultancy and agency staff.  

 

We are strongly committed to fairness and making sure that everyone has the same opportunities to achieve the same, or similar, outcomes. This policy statement meets the requirements set out by the Equality Act 2010 and aims to prevent unlawful discrimination on the grounds of disability, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion and beliefs, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnerships.  It has been written and approved in-line with YHN’s Policy & Strategy Development Framework and supports our strategic objective of amazing places where people are proud to live.

 

Our commitments

YHN accepts its responsibilities with regards to lift safety and the inspection and maintenance of lifts under its management.

YHN will aim to eliminate, where possible, or reduce, as far as is reasonably practicable, the risks.

 

To meet this commitment YHN will.

 

• Appoint a responsible person (an authorised officer) to be managerially responsible for the operation, condition, and compliance with all relevant statutory requirements. This will include acting (within the advised timescales) to remedy any faults or defects identified through routine inspections or insurer’s thorough examinations
• Hold accurate records against each property it manages, identifying where there is a lift with a written examination scheme for each installation
• Ensure that it meets all its legal requirements regarding lift safety operations via a combination of regular inspections, thorough examinations, and periodic routine maintenance of all lifting equipment under YHN management
• Ensure that there are clear procedures in place and that these procedures are communicated to, and understood, by all relevant staff, for appropriate action in the event of any persons becoming trapped in lifts managed by YHN
• Ensure that all lifting equipment is thoroughly examined by a competent person before it is commissioned into use and subsequent periodic examinations in accordance with the equipment’s examination scheme
• Commission only competent and appropriately qualified contractors to complete works on Lifting equipment
• Have robust processes and controls to ensure that any health and safety incident with regard to passenger lift safety is properly reported as required under RIDDOR. These include defects classed as “immediately dangerous”
• Have service level agreements in place with competent contractor’s responsible for delivering the compliance service
• Have effective contract management arrangements in place, in the form of regular and frequent client led meetings
• Have a robust process for stock changes to ensure that no equipment or property is omitted from the compliance programme
• Provide an appropriate level of information and training for those with responsibilities under this policy statement

 

The key objectives of the policy statement are to establish:

• Passenger lift management principles
• Approach to compliance remedial work
• Record keeping
• Competent persons
• Training
• Audit procedure
• Non-compliance
• Passenger lift safety Information

 

This policy statement will be reviewed annually, or earlier if necessary due to:

 

• Legislative changes
• Structural or role changes
• Operational or technical changes

 

Current version:	1.0
Date published:
Date of next review:	February 2023
Author:	Steven Studley, Compliance Manager; Mark Riley, Compliance Officer (Water Hygiene).
Owner:	Ian Gallagher, Assistant Director, Operational Property Services.
Approved by:		Date: