Construction (Lifting Operations) Regulations, 1961
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1961/1581 |
| Year | 1961 |
1961 No. 1581
FACTORIES
The Construction (Lifting Operations) Regulations, 196115thAugust 1961
22ndAugust 1961
1stMarch 1962
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
Reg
PART I. Application and Interpretation . 1-4
PART II. Exemptions . 5-9
PART III. Lifting Appliances . 10-33
PART IV. Chains, Ropes and Lifting Gear . 34-41
PART V. Special Provisions as to Hoists 42-46
PART VI. Carriage of Persons and Secureness of Loads 47-49
PART VII. Keeping of Records . 50
SCHEDULES
FIRST SCHEDULE.—Extent of exclusions under Regulation 6.
SECOND SCHEDULE.—Chains and lifting gear excepted under Regulation 41 (as to heat treatment).
REGULATIONS
The Minister of Labour by virtue of the powers conferred on him by sections 46 and 60 of the Factories Act, 1937(a), section 8 of the Factories Act, 1948(b), section 27 of the Factories Act, 1959(c), and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following special Regulations after publishing, pursuant to the Second Schedule to the said Act of 1937, notice of the proposal to make the said Regulations and after the holding of an inquiry under that Schedule into objections made to the draft Regulations:—
PART I
APPLICATION AND INTERPRETATION
Citation, commencement and revocation
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Construction (Lifting Operations) Regulations, 1961, and shall come into operation on the first day of March, 1962.
(2) Regulations 34 to 74 of the Building (Safety, Health and Welfare) Regulations, 1948(d), and the Building (Safety, Health and Welfare) (Amendment) Regulations, 1958(e), are hereby revoked.
(a) 1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6. c. 67.
(c) 7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 67.
(d) S.I. 1948/1145 (Rev. VII, p. 191: 1948 I, p. 953).
(e) S.I. 1958/1553 (1958 I, p. 1110).
Application of Regulations
2. These Regulations apply—
(a) to building operations; and
(b) to works of engineering construction,
undertaken by way of trade or business, or for the purpose of any industrial or commercial undertaking, or by or on behalf of the Crown or any municipal or other public authority, and to any line or siding which is used in connection therewith and for the purposes thereof and is not part of a railway or tramway.
Obligations under Regulations
3.—(1) It shall be the duty of every contractor, and every employer of workmen, who is undertaking any of the operations or works to which these Regulations apply—
(a) to comply with such of the requirements of the following Regulations as affect him or any workman employed by him, that is to say, Regulation 42 (1) in so far as it relates to the protection of the hoistway, and Regulation 47:
Provided that the requirements of the said Regulations shall be deemed not to affect any workman if and so long as his presence in any place is not in the course of performing any work on behalf of his employer and is not expressly or impliedly authorised or permitted by his employer; and
(b) to comply with such of the requirements of Regulations 49 (1) to (6) and 50 as relate to any work, act or operation performed or about to be performed by any such contractor or employer of workmen,
and it shall be the duty of every contractor, and every employer of workmen, who erects, instals, works or uses any plant or equipment to which any of the provisions of Regulations 8 to 46, 48 and 49 (7) applies, to erect, instal, work or use any such plant or equipment in a manner which complies with those provisions.
(2) It shall be the duty of every person employed to comply with the requirements of such Regulations as relate to the doing of or refraining from an act by him and to co-operate in carrying out these Regulations and if he discovers any defect in the plant or equipment to report such defect without unreasonable delay to his employer or foreman, or to a person appointed by the employer in writing to supervise the safe conduct of the work generally.
Interpretation
4.—(1) The Interpretation Act, 1889(a), shall apply to the interpretation of these Regulations as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament, and as if these Regulations and the Regulations hereby revoked were Acts of Parliament.
(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say—
"approved" means approved for the time being by certificate of the Chief Inspector;
(a) 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63.
"hoist" means a lifting machine, whether worked by mechanical power or not, with a carriage, platform or cage the movement of which is restricted by a guide or guides, but does not include a lifting appliance used for the movement of trucks or wagons on a line of rails;
"lifting appliance" means a crab, winch, pulley block or gin wheel used for raising or lowering and a hoist, crane, sheer legs, excavator, dragline, piling frame, aerial cableway, aerial ropeway or overhead runway;
"lifting gear" means a chain sling, rope sling, or similar gear, and a ring, link, hook, plate clamp, shackle, swivel or eye-bolt;
"mobile crane" means a crane capable of travelling under its own power, but does not include a crane which travels on a line of rails;
"plant or equipment" includes any plant, equipment, gear, machinery, apparatus or appliance, or any part thereof;
"the principal Act" means the Factories Act, 1937, as amended by or under any other Act;
"raising or lowering or as a means of suspension" where that expression occurs in Regulations 34, 35, 36, 40 and 41 means raising or lowering or as a means of suspension either of a load on a lifting appliance or lifting gear or of a scaffold but does not include the use of a rope or chain solely as a means of lashing or securing together two or more rigid members of a scaffold to form a frame or as a means of making a lapped joint or the use of a rope or chain solely for the movement of a load in a horizontal direction;
"safe working load" means either the relevant safe working load required to be specified in the latest certificate of test obtained for the purposes of Regulations 28, 34, 35 and 46 or where no such certificate is required the relevant safe working load required to be marked or exhibited on the lifting appliance, lifting gear, chain, rope or other article of plant or equipment by Regulations 29 and 34;
"scaffold" means any temporarily provided structure on or from which persons perform work in connection with operations or works to which these Regulations apply, and any temporarily provided structure which enables persons to obtain access to or which enables materials to be taken to any place at which such work is performed, and includes any working platform, working stage, gangway, run, ladder or step-ladder (other than an independent ladder or step-ladder which does not form part of such a structure) together with any guard-rail, toe-board or other safeguards and all fixings, but does not include a lifting appliance or a structure used merely to support such an appliance or to support other plant or equipment;
"suspended scaffold" means a scaffold suspended by means of ropes or chains and capable of being raised or lowered by such means but does not include a boatswain's chair or similar appliance.
PART II
EXEMPTIONS
Certificates of exemption
5. The Chief Inspector may (subject to such conditions, if any, as may be specified therein) by certificate in writing (which he may in his discretion revoke at any time) exempt from all or any of the requirements of these Regulations—
(a) any particular plant or equipment or any class or description of plant or equipment; or
(b) any particular work or any class or description of work;
if he is satisfied that the requirements in respect of which the exemption is granted are not necessary for the protection of persons employed or are not reasonably practicable.
Lifting machinery in factory premises and in docks, etc.
6.—(1) Lifting appliances, chains, ropes and lifting gear to which this Regulation applies shall, as respects the incidental or occasional use thereof in or for the purposes of operations or works to which these Regulations apply, be excluded from the operation of the Regulations specified in column 1 of the First Schedule hereto to the extent specified in column 2 thereof and subject to the exceptions and conditions specified in column 3 thereof.
(2) This Regulation applies to any lifting appliance, chain, rope or lifting gear—
(a) which forms part of the permanent equipment of a factory or other premises to which the safety provisions in sections 23 and 24 of the principal Act apply and which is used at that factory or those premises in raising or lowering for purposes other than the operations or works to which these Regulations apply, but is being used for such operations or works at that factory or those premises; or
(b) which is regularly and ordinarily used in the processes of loading, unloading, moving or handling goods in, on or at any dock, wharf or quay or of loading, unloading or coaling any ship in any dock, harbour or canal, but is being used for operations or works to which these Regulations apply in, on or at a dock, wharf, quay, harbour or canal.
Delivery of loads with lifting gear attached
7. Where any article, material or other load intended for use in operations or works to which these Regulations apply is delivered at, or adjacent to, the site of such operations or works with a chain, rope or lifting gear attached thereto and designed for use as a means of raising and lowering that class of load when removing the same from the point of delivery to a position on the site, and the chain, rope or gear is free from patent defect whether of construction or quality and is not owned or hired by any contractor or employer of workmen who is undertaking any such operations or works as aforesaid on the site, then the requirements of Regulations 34, 35, 40 and 41 shall not apply in respect of the use of such chain, rope or...
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