A company has purchased a second hand machine, (for clarification it has not been refurbished, it has been operated by the original purchaser and maintained in line with the manufacturers recommendations). The machine is 14 years old and was CE when first installed. The original owner is no longer in possession of the manual or Declaration of Conformity. The new owner has acquired a copy of a manual from the machine manufacturer, which contains a template for the Declaration of Conformity. The serial number and signature are blank on the DoC in the manual as it is a copy of the master manual obtained from the machine manufacturer. The new owner of the machine has requested the signed Declaration of Conformity for their machine from the machine manufacturer, who have responded that this was issued to the original purchaser, that no copies were retained and that documentation on individual machines are disposed of after 10 years unless the owner has a service contract for the maintenance of the machine. Is the machine manufacturer responsible for producing a new DoC 14 years later ?

I agree - ever 14 years ago the doc was a useless bit of paper and a PUWER assessment was required

The manufacturer may be right. They have a duty under old Machinery Directive 98/37/EC to retain documentation for only 10 years after the last example of a machine has been produced. Your client has a duty under PUWER to carry out a risk assessment on the machine before they put it into service. They have a duty to ensure that the machine will be safe in its intended use, regardless of its CE status.