Our PUWER training isn’t about teaching your operators how to use machinery safely. That’s down to you as the employer, or your equipment supplier. We train the people in your business who are responsible for compliance to carry out a full PUWER assessment themselves, so they can spot where your equipment, processes or existing training fall short of the regulations and know what to do about it.
Knox Thomas builds this training around your equipment, your processes and your people. Book a free consultation and we’ll help you work out whether training or a full assessment from us is the better fit, or call us on +44 (0)333 0344 280.
What Does PUWER Stand For?
PUWER stands for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, the UK regulations that apply to any equipment used for work, from hand tools and ladders through to machining centres, forklifts and lifting equipment. If your business provides equipment for people to use at work, PUWER applies to you.
The regulations place duties on employers and anyone who controls work equipment, covering suitability, maintenance, inspection, and the information, instruction and training given to the people who use it. The full requirements are set out in the HSE’s PUWER guidance.
Not sure whether training or a full assessment is the right next step? Talk it through with one of our machinery safety specialists. A free, no-obligation consultation is the quickest way to find out which one suits your business.
Who Needs PUWER Training?
Our PUWER training is aimed at whoever ends up responsible for compliance in your business, rather than every operator on the shop floor:
- Health and safety leads, the people who own PUWER compliance day to day
- Engineering and maintenance managers, who know the machinery best and can act on what an assessment finds
- Business owners and site managers, especially at smaller operations who’d rather assess their own equipment than bring in an outside assessor
That’s usually a much smaller group than a full workforce rollout, but it means the people running your assessments know what to look for and how to read the regulations against your own equipment.
Assessment Training or a Full Assessment, Whichever Fits
Free Tool
Simple but Powerful PUWER Assessment App
A simple, easy-to-use app for checking PUWER compliance — usable on Apple, Android, and desktop browser. No intensive auditing or complicated report writing.
PUWER requires work equipment to be suitable for its purpose, maintained in good working order and inspected at suitable intervals, with records kept, and the people using it to be properly trained. A full PUWER assessment checks all of this against your machinery. Our PUWER training teaches your team to run that same check themselves.
Complex or large-scale operations often bring in Knox Thomas to carry out full PUWER inspections and machinery risk assessments for them. Smaller operations may choose to be trained instead, so that they can carry out their own assessments. The training is a complete walkthrough of the assessment process, with help on compliance gap analysis, and a method for recording and scoring each non-compliance you find, including our free PUWER App for capturing assessments on site.
Online PUWER Awareness Training
Need one or two people up to speed quickly? Our self-serve online PUWER awareness course takes around 34 minutes. It’s a tutor-led, interactive session covering the equipment that falls under PUWER, common hazards, and inspection and maintenance basics. Take it anytime, on any device, and try it free before you buy (£79 per person).
Training a whole team, or want sessions built around your actual equipment? Tailored specialist training is the better fit, so book a free consultation.
PUWER Training FAQs
What is covered in PUWER training?
Our PUWER training teaches you to interpret each regulation against your own equipment, recognise where a piece of machinery or a process falls short, and score the risk of any non-compliance you find. Typical content includes an introduction to the regulations and who holds each duty, a full walkthrough of the assessment process, and hands-on use of our PUWER App for recording findings.
Our background is machinery safety consultancy, not training for its own sake, so the sessions are built around your equipment, your processes and the people who’ll be running your assessments. That’s what makes the training useful in practice, and it’s something generic off-the-shelf courses can’t do.
How often should PUWER training be repeated?
There’s no such thing as a PUWER certificate, and our training doesn’t certify anyone to carry out assessments. The point of it is to give your team the practical skills to spot what needs spotting, so your machinery meets the standard PUWER sets out.
The main reasons to repeat PUWER training are that the people who did it have forgotten how to carry out an assessment, or new people have joined who have never been trained. It’s also worth a refresher whenever you bring in new machinery or change a process.
How do you do a PUWER assessment?
Start by listing every piece of work equipment, then assess each item for suitability, condition, hazards and the controls in place, recording who uses it and what training they have had.
Our free PUWER App gives you a checklist for exactly this, and a specialist assessment from us fills any gaps.
What year is PUWER?
PUWER is the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, which came into force on 5 December 1998 and replaced the 1992 regulations of the same name.
Despite its age, it remains the current law on work equipment in Great Britain.
Is PUWER training a legal requirement?
No. There is no legal requirement to complete PUWER training, and no legal requirement to have a formal PUWER assessment carried out either. What the regulations require is that your work equipment is suitable, maintained, inspected, and that the people using it are adequately trained in its safe use.
Even so, many companies choose to have a formal PUWER assessment done anyway, to find compliance gaps before an incident or an HSE visit does. You can bring in a company like Knox Thomas to do that assessment, or do it yourself, which is what our training equips your team for.
Let’s talk PUWER training
For a free initial consultation, book an appointment via our meeting system or fill out the form. Tell us roughly how many people need training and what equipment you run. We aim to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours.
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Longridge Business Centre Stonebridge Mill
Kestor Lane
Longridge
Preston
PR3 3AD
Lancashire
England
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Lowther House
Lowther Street
Kendal
LA9 4DX
Cumbria
England