Good morning everyone,
I am new to the forum so please be gentle with your replies.
This may be a stupid question but it is one that is causing long dicussions and no actions with the company I work.
Do we need an assest register to satisfy any of the H&S regulations like PUWER, LOLER etc. We are working towards getting OHAS18001 and we have had a consultant carryout a gap anlysis of our Health & safety on site and one of his comments was without a assest register how can you say that everything with in the building has been assessed for safety and that it has been inspected and maintained?
I am pro assest register as it would help me maintain the equipment around the building and identify potential problems. But senior management think it would be to much of a resoucre drain and financially to expensive.
I have been around some large organisation that seem to have asset numbers on everything even chairs, is this just because they can or best practice or a legal requirement?
Basically i can not find a difinative answer amungst the regulation but i must admitt i have only just started looking.
Please help if you can.

... and we have had a consultant carryout a gap anlysis of our Health & safety on site and one of his comments was without a assest register how can you say that everything with in the building has been assessed for safety and that it has been inspected and maintained?

As is so often the case, there's both a grain of truth and a red herring in here. Why do facilities managers put asset numbers on chairs? Is it safety or to stop people nicking them?

The concept of an asset register isn't new - if you've nothing better to do for a wet Friday afternoon, go look at the Factories Acts from 1961 back through 1937... regarding lifting equipment and boilers. Our predecessors got it right to this extent, they were focussing on where some very real problems were.

You may need a register, depending on what your business is, but start with the obvious bits of kit that actually really need maintenance and inspection to ensure ongoing safety and get that working properly first. You may find that someone in maintenance already has the basis of it, particularly if it involves contracted work.

And don't despair, most firms still don't get near 100% inspection of lifting tackle every round (it's lost, hidden in tool boxes because it's just the only one that does a particular job.....) and LOLER's got a century plus of antecedents!

I don't think that you NEED a register to satissfy the regs, but it would sure make the management of all of the bits of kit easier and go some way to ensure that you meet the needs of the regs by helping to ensure that you don't miss out on maintaining a piece of kit