Am I Legally Liable? Forklift Operator Training and the Law

If you employ people who drive lift trucks, the short answer is that the legal duty is yours and it cannot be delegated away. This page sets out where that duty comes from, what it requires in practice, what happens when it is not met, and how much of it we can take off your hands. It is general guidance on the regulations, not legal advice.

PUWER reg 9adequate training is a duty on the employer

ACOP L117the standard you have to match or better

Section 37directors and managers can be prosecuted personally

RTITBaccredited training at three centres

On this page

Where the duty comes from
What “adequate training” actually means
Who is liable, and can it be personal?
What happens when the paperwork is not in place
The five questions to ask yourself
How we help you meet it
Where to start

Forklift operator at work, subject to the employer duty to train and authorise

Where the duty comes from

Three instruments matter, and they stack:

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Section 2 requires an employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of employees, including the provision of information, instruction, training and supervision. Section 3 extends a duty to people who are not your employees but may be affected: visitors, contractors, delivery drivers.
PUWER 1998, regulation 9. Every employer must ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including the risks such use may entail and the precautions to be taken.
ACOP L117, rider-operated lift trucks. The Approved Code of Practice on operator training and safe use.

The status of an ACOP is worth understanding, because it is often misdescribed. Failing to follow an ACOP is not in itself an offence. But if you are prosecuted for a breach of the regulations and it is shown you did not follow the relevant ACOP, you have to satisfy the court that you complied in some other way that was equally effective. In practice that is a difficult argument to run, which is why the ACOP is treated as the standard.

What “adequate training” actually means

It is more than a certificate in a drawer. The recognised structure is three stages:

Basic training: the skills and knowledge to operate the truck safely.
Specific job training: the particular workplace, the loads, the attachments, the layout.
Familiarisation training: operating under supervision on the actual job.

Beyond the initial course, three things are routinely missed:

The certificate covers a category, not every truck. An operator trained on a counterbalance is not certificated on a reach truck, a VNA machine or a powered pallet truck. Moving an operator to a different machine needs conversion training.
Refresher training. There is no single statutory interval, and anyone who tells you there is a fixed legal number is overstating it. What is expected is that you decide a sensible period and refresh sooner where there is reason to: an incident, a near miss, a long absence, a change of machine or a change of duty. See refresher training and whether certificates expire.
Written authorisation. Training is not the whole duty. The employer authorises the operator to use that machine on that site, in writing. This is the single most commonly missing document we see.

Who is liable, and can it be personal?

The duty sits with the employer. Buying a service contract, or using an agency, does not transfer it.

A few points that surprise people:

Agency and temporary staff. If they operate your equipment on your site, you have duties towards them. Checking a certificate at the door is not the same as satisfying yourself they are trained and competent for that machine.
Contractors on your site. Control can be shared, and a shared duty is still your duty. Agree in writing who holds what.
Individuals as well as the company. Under section 37 of the 1974 Act, where an offence by a company is committed with the consent or connivance of a director, manager or similar officer, or is attributable to their neglect, that individual can be prosecuted as well as the company. Directors and managers are not shielded by the corporate entity.
The operator too. Section 7 places duties on employees to take reasonable care. That does not reduce your duty; it sits alongside it.

Where a death results, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 can apply to the organisation where the way its activities were managed by senior management amounted to a gross breach of a duty of care.

A list of your operators against a list of your machines is usually all it takes to find the gap.

01708 861 414 Book a free site visit

Certificated operator driving a forklift under proper authorisation

What happens when the paperwork is not in place

Before an incident, the usual consequence is an HSE improvement or prohibition notice, which can stop a machine, an area or an operation immediately, and a fee for intervention where a material breach is found.

After an incident, the picture changes. Since February 2016 the Sentencing Council’s health and safety guideline has linked fines to turnover, so a single serious incident can produce a penalty an order of magnitude larger than it would have done before. Individuals can face fines and, for the most serious offences, custody.

On insurance, the position is more nuanced than the common claim that a breach simply voids your cover. Employers’ liability insurance is compulsory, and an insurer generally cannot use a breach to deny an injured employee.

What can happen is that policy conditions about training and maintenance are engaged, that the insurer seeks to recover from you, and that other cover is affected. Treat this as a question for your broker rather than as a settled point.

After any serious incident, the first documents requested are the training records, the written authorisation, the risk assessment and the thorough examination reports. Having them ready is what stops an accident becoming a prosecution, and keeping them current is exactly the sort of thing we look after for our customers.

The five questions to ask yourself

Can I produce a current training certificate for every operator, for the category of machine they actually drive?
Have I authorised each of them in writing for that machine and this site?
Do I have a refresher policy, and have I actually followed it?
Is there a written risk assessment covering pedestrian segregation, traffic routes and loading areas?
Are pre-use checks being recorded, and does a reported defect actually stop the truck? See pre-shift inspection.

If any answer is uncertain, that is the place to start, and we are glad to work through it with you. Our am I compliant self-check works through the equipment side in the same way.

How we help you meet it

We are RTITB accredited at Purfleet, Kent and Portsmouth, and we train on the machines you actually run rather than a generic course:

Counterbalance, reach truck, very narrow aisle, powered pallet trucks, order picker, pivot steer and multi-directional sideloaders.
MEWP and scissor lift, telehandler, banksman and manual handling.
Managing and supervising MHE operations, for the people who authorise operators rather than drive themselves.
Instructor training, where it makes sense to bring capability in house.

Novice, semi-experienced and experienced operators take different courses, so we match the course to the operator rather than putting everyone through the same one. All courses are at forklift training, and the equipment-side duty is covered on health, safety and compliance.

Where to start

If you are reading this because something has already happened, talk to your own legal advisers first. If you are reading it because you want to know whether you would stand up to scrutiny if it did, the practical starting point is a list of your operators against a list of your machines, and a free site visit to check the two match.

A list of your operators against a list of your machines is usually all it takes to find the gap.

01708 861 414 Book a free site visit

Liability and training: common questions

As the employer, the duty to ensure operators are adequately trained is yours under PUWER regulation 9 and the Health and Safety at Work Act. It cannot be delegated to a supplier or an agency. Whether liability follows in a particular case depends on the facts, and this page is general guidance rather than legal advice, but the starting position is that the duty sits with you.

PUWER regulation 9 requires that everyone who uses work equipment has received adequate training for health and safety purposes. For rider-operated lift trucks the Approved Code of Practice L117 sets out what that means in practice: basic training, specific job training and familiarisation. Failing to follow an ACOP is not itself an offence, but if you are prosecuted you would have to show you complied in some other equally effective way.

There is no single statutory interval, and anyone quoting a fixed legal number is overstating it. What is expected is that you set a sensible period and refresh sooner where there is a reason: an incident or near miss, a long absence, a change of machine, a change of duty, or evidence of unsafe practice.

No. A certificate covers the category of machine it was issued for. An operator certificated on a counterbalance is not certificated on a reach truck, a VNA machine or a powered pallet truck, and moving them needs conversion training. This is one of the most common gaps we find.

Training establishes competence; authorisation is the employer confirming in writing that a named person may operate a specified machine on a specified site. It is expected practice and it is the document most often missing. One sheet per operator per machine type is enough.

If they operate your equipment on your site, you have duties towards them. Checking a certificate at the door is not the same as satisfying yourself they are trained and competent for that machine and that workplace, which is what specific job and familiarisation training exist to do.

Both are possible. Under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, where an offence by a company is committed with the consent or connivance of a director, manager or similar officer, or is attributable to their neglect, that individual can be prosecuted as well as the company.

The position is more nuanced than the common claim. Employers' liability insurance is compulsory and an insurer generally cannot use a breach to deny an injured employee. What can happen is that policy conditions about training and maintenance are engaged, that the insurer seeks to recover from you, and that other cover is affected. This is a question for your broker rather than a settled point.