Morning, i wonder if anyone can answer this question for me please. I have returned from three days sick leave from work, during my absence our contracts manager has purchased two Safety Harnesses, the manufacture date of these harnesses is 2008. Now although the harnesses have not been out of the box, do we need to have them tested, prior to issuing them to our workers, my concern is that under LOLER regs the harnesses should be tested regularly and they are now over 2 years old, the date on the harnesses shows that they are over two years old and if there were an accident whereby the harness failed, what could the outcome be.

Thankyou for that mate, to be honest that was my opinion when i was questioned this morning and we have no recorded and issed the harnesses.

Hi you will need to check the product information but harness will have a shelf life and a working life for example our rigger harness has 10 year shelf lif, harness made in 2000 would be passed its shelf life (even if not used ) this year, the Working life is 5 years (subject to wear and tear ) so harness made in 2005 would passed its working life (even if it is still serviceable) this year. The harness must be inspected by the user before every use for serviceability etc. and we say by a competent person every 6 months (this is recorded).Our insurers require statutory inspections annually.