Real Responsibility & PUWER Regs 4, 5, 6, 9: Leadership's Legal and Moral Duty

Relevant PUWER Regulations:

• Regulation 4 – Suitability of Work Equipment

• Regulation 5 – Maintenance

• Regulation 6 – Inspection

• Regulation 9 – Training

• Regulation 10 - conformity with community requirements (the PUWER myth)
  
  

Summary:

PUWER places clear responsibilities on employers – not workers – to ensure machinery is safe to use, maintained, and operated by competent people. Many organizations unknowingly shift these duties downstream. This section clarifies where leadership accountability lies. 

A commonly misinterpreted part of PUWER is Regulation 10. Many believe that machines installed before 1998 are exempt from the regulations — but that’s not the case. Reg 10 simply states that pre-1998 machines aren’t required to carry a CE mark. The rest of PUWER still fully applies. Employers are still legally responsible for ensuring the equipment is safe, maintained, and suitable for use, regardless of when it was installed.

Deeper Insight:

Leadership has the strategic and moral responsibility to:

• Specify and procure suitable equipment
  

• Maintain it to the required standard
  

• Inspect it on a frequency appropriate to its risk
  

• Train personnel for task-specific competence
  

Neglecting these responsibilities exposes workers and creates legal risk. Leaders who see PUWER as an operational checklist miss the opportunity to embed a risk-aware mindset into the organization.

Strategic Insight:

Real leadership means removing risk before expecting people to manage it. PUWER isn’t a safety department issue – it’s a company issue.