Posted By Frank Hallett Joanne - you're quite correct in that PUWER requires the needs of maintenance to be actively considered [Reg 22]. There is no ACoP to this Reg however, only Guidance. If you can obtain a copy of L22 you can read it for youself - if not, email me and I shall send you the extract. Ultimately, you must assess the hazards implicated by ALL mainteneance operations and then go to whichever of the myriad other Regulations are most appropriate as well as PUWER. For instance, the Electricity at Work Regs, The Manual Handling Regs, possibly even the Confined Spaces Regs, or even the good old catch-all of the MHSW must all be considered for relevance. Maintenance activities tend to be far more hazardous than routine work and are also frequently made next to impossible by failures such as the one that you've identified. Frank hallett

Posted By peter gotch Joanne, Posting that Chris is referring to is at http://www.iosh.co.uk/in...iew&Forum=1&Thread=16188 Regards. Peter

Posted By Jenny R Harris Joanne, PUWER etc. directs you, the employer, to identify what standards you need to have in place for maintenance but it doesn't really deal with the supply and installation issue. The routes you could take to persuade your supplier to comply with your demands include: 1. The contract you placed with them to supply and install - what does it say about complyng with your requirements? You are the client, as such you have a certain amount of power. Is there a clause about with-holding a percentage of payment till you are happy with the product. 2. Section 6 of HSWA - duties of those who install etc. in paragraph 3 3. Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 - again EU wide duties on those in the supply chain to ensure machinery achieves the essential health and safety requirements. These duties are however placed only on those who design the piece of equipment. Tied into this there are design requirements to enable safe mainenance within BS EN ISO 12100 : 2003 parts 1 and 2. If you contact me by e-mail I can e-mail back extracts from the latter. You may already have go this far...... but hope this helps.