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Lift barriers for maintenance - whose responsibility?
Rank: Super forum user
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A discussion is being had in my place of work about the barriers that get placed in front of the lift doors when servicing is taking place. Two questions;
1) Should the barriers be provided by the servicing/maintenance company or by the property owner/occupier?
2) Does a barrier have to be made available for each floor/door or just one since each floor level door should be closed during servicing, (except the one being worked on).
What is the correct approach?
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Rank: Forum user
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Chas, the barrier is normally provided by the servicing company, in some buildings a barrier is left in the lift motor room, on other occasions the service engineer will have one in his van.
It is highly unlikely that two landing doors will be open at the same time so one barrier is sufficient.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Thanks for the reply. I gather the old HSE document PM27 (now withdrawn) used to put the onus on the property owner to provide the barrier because they were responsible for maintaining safety at the lift landing. Has this approach now changed? Is the responsibility now that of the servicing engineer/company who are undertaking the work and creating the potential hazard by leaving the lift doors open and exposing the shaft during servicing?
I know we could just go and buy a barrier but I believe this has become embroiled in a contract issue on a new build and it would be nice to resolve it one way or the other to smooth the way!!.
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Rank: Super forum user
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My understanding is that it is always the property controllers responsibility to ensure they are provided - this does NOT mean that they must provide. The best method is to ensure the contract requires the maintenance engineers to provide. They will then be using their own equipment with which they will be familiar.
Bob
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Rank: Forum user
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Just have a look at most barriers they advertise the name of the lift company on them. enough said. also no lift engineer would ever leave the landing doors open with just a barrier stopping the public entering the lift shaft unless the lift was on the same level, and even then the engineer would be present.
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Rank: New forum user
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This is similar to a previous question regarding lift inspections and the competant persons. You will probably find that after a lift 6 month inspection, contained within the susequent report to the client will be a section covering Health & Safety works required! The Insurance companies who usually carry out the inspections will now note whether there is a barrier located within the lift motor room and if not request one is porovided. So when attending a site one of the steps in a lift engineers method statement/risk assessment will ask if there is a barrier provided on site! The onus is on site because not all service engineers carry a barrier and historically when the lift is first installed its part of the check list to enable an EN81 Dec of Conformity to be issued, and the lift would not be normally handed over without all the required H&s items on site. Hope this helps.
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Lift barriers for maintenance - whose responsibility?
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