Inspect your farm machinery

What many farmers don’t realise is that they are legally obliged to have their farm machinery inspected on a regular basis. By using heavy farm machinery – such as forklifts, telehandlers or any other lifting equipment – farmers have to comply with PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) and LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations) standards, which means having them regularly tested by a competent engineer.

The regulations apply to all items of equipment, including jacks, slings, lifting chains and fork lift attachments, which must all be inspected annually. Personnel cages and lifts must be inspected every six months.

If a farm worker is injured, or worse, through malfunctioning equipment, the claim made against the farmer should be covered by standard insurance. However, the Health and Safety Executive will almost certainly look into it and this could lead to prosecution and a potentially crippling fine.

In many prosecutions of this nature, the farmers concerned believed that they were doing nothing wrong – they were simply unaware of the compliance checks they needed to have carried out.

Our advice to farmers is to check with their insurance broker that they are taking the necessary precautions with regard to farm machinery.

This is an area in which Lycetts specialises and, through our sister company Farmers and Mercantile Insurance Brokers, we are one of the few brokers able to offer a full farm machinery examination service using our own qualified staff.