LRD guides and handbook July 2018

Health and safety law 2018

Chapter 8

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations



[ch 8: pages 135-136]

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR) apply wherever manual handling operations are carried out — that is physical lifting, carrying or moving any load. There are no maximum weight limits set for loads, although the HSE publishes advice on the sort of weights that are likely to cause injuries. (These can be found in an Appendix to its guidance on the regulations.)



Manual Handling — Manual Handling Operations Regulations 2002 Guidance on Regulations can be found on the HSE website.


Instead of imposing maximum weight limits, the regulations require a risk assessment of the task, load and working environment. Employers are required to avoid hazardous manual handling operations (so far as reasonably practicable) by:



• redesigning the task to avoid moving the load or by automating or mechanising the process;



• making a risk assessment of operations that cannot be avoided;



• reducing the risk of injury to as low as is reasonably practicable, giving particular consideration to providing mechanical assistance; and



• providing training and information for employees, including general indications and, where reasonably practicable, specific information about the load.



Safety reps have a right to information about new processes, including proposed workplace layouts. By being involved at the design stage, they have the chance to eliminate problems before a new machine, process or work system is installed. If manual handling cannot be eliminated, the main aim should be to cut the weight of loads and ensure that they are handled less often.



There may be a few tasks that cannot be altered and involve difficult lifting problems. In these cases, workers who are required to do them should be physically suited and specially trained.



The HSE published new advice on manual handling training in March 2018. It says research has found general training in lifting techniques is an ineffective way of controlling the risks of manual handling in businesses and wants “off-the-shelf” manual handling training to become a thing of the past. It says employers should instead get help to change the way they work and reduce manual handling risks. 


It says simplistic training involving “bending your knees to lift a cardboard box” is a waste of time and money and does not make any difference. Employers should start with avoiding and reducing manual handling if their workforce faces manual handling risks. Rather than starting with training, they should start with reorganising and redesigning working practices. 


If there is a need for staff training for residual risks, the HSE says this should be customised and professionally delivered. It should be based on observations of current working practices and should be informed by the views and experience of the workforce.


The new advice can be found on the HSE website at: www.hse.gov.uk/msd/external-help.htm.


Manual handling case law


A number of legal cases have provided further guidance on the regulations:


• the fact than an employer fails to carry out a risk assessment does not mean that they are not under a duty to take steps to give information about the weight of a load where there is a risk of injury (Swain v Denso Martin Ltd (2000), The Times, 24 April);


• the difficulties NHS employers have in reconciling duties towards patients and employees has been taken into account (King v Sussex Ambulance NHS Trust [2002] EWCA Civ 953), but this is not always the case (Knott v Newham Healthcare NHS Trust [2002] EWHC 2091 (QB));


• an employer required to take appropriate steps to reduce a risk of injury to the lowest level reasonably practicable must, in assessing the risk, consider the particular task, the context of where it is performed and the employee required to perform it (O’Neill v DSG Retail Ltd [2002] EWCA Civ 1139).


Guidance on what a “suitable and sufficient” risk assessment is can be found in Ghaith v Indesit Co UK Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 642 and Sloan v Governors of Rastrick High School [2014] EWCA Civ 1063.