GA1 Form Explained: Thorough Examinations of Lifting Equipment in Ireland – 6 or 12 Months?

The GA1 form is the Health and Safety Authority's template for a report of thorough examination of lifting equipment, filled in and signed by a competent person. The legal duty behind it is in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007: lifting accessories, hoists, MEWPs and anything that lifts people must be thoroughly examined at least every 6 months, and cranes, forklifts, telehandlers and vehicle lifts at least every 12 months. Mobile cranes and winches also need a test every 4 years.

The problem is rarely the examination itself but everything around it: the GA1s sit in a folder, the shackles miss the last round, and the hired telehandler's examination runs out a week before it goes back. Equipment past its examination date must not be used (Reg. 52(3)).

What a GA1 form is – and what it is not

The HSA publishes the GA1, GA2 and GA3 (plus a scaffold GA3) on its forms page. All three carry the same note: it is not an approved or statutory form, and reports may be produced in other formats. What the law fixes is the content, not the layout.

Schedule 1, Part E lists what every report must contain: the employer or owner and where the examination took place, the item and its safe working load for each configuration, the purpose of the examination, any defect that is or could become a danger and the repairs needed, parts that could not be reached, the latest date for the next thorough examination, and the examiner's name, address and qualifications. A report from your insurer's engineer that covers all of this is just as valid as a GA1.

People often call it a "GA1 cert", but a GA1 is not a certificate of conformity. Nor is it the certificate of test and examination needed before fixed lifting equipment or a new lifting accessory is first used (Regs. 52(1)(a) and 57). It records the condition of the equipment on the day it was examined.

LOLER vs the Irish 2007 Regulations

LOLER – the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 – is UK law, and Northern Ireland has its own LOLER (NI) 1999. In the Republic, the rules are in Part 2, Chapter 2 of S.I. No. 299 of 2007 (Regulations 42 to 61), as amended by S.I. No. 732 of 2007 and S.I. No. 2 of 2020. The headline periods look alike, but the details differ:

• Ireland sets a period for each type of equipment in Schedule 1. LOLER sets 6 or 12 months but lets you follow an examination scheme drawn up by a competent person instead. In Ireland, a scheme is only an option in premises used mainly to generate, transform or switch electricity.
• Lifting equipment on Irish construction sites needs a weekly examination by the user.
• Schedule 1, Part C sets fixed test intervals, such as every 4 years for mobile cranes and winches.
• Excavators, telehandlers and backhoe loaders used for object handling need a signed certificate of safe working loads from a competent person before first use (Reg. 55).

How often: 6 months, 12 months and 4-yearly tests

Schedule 1, Part B gives the maximum period between thorough examinations. Your competent person can set a shorter one, but must then give the owner and user the reason in writing (Reg. 53(2)).

Part C adds tests as part of the thorough examination: every 4 years for mobile cranes and winches, after each assembly of a tower crane, before first use of fixed lifting equipment, and after any substantial alteration or repair affecting strength or stability. Part D lists items outside these rules, such as pallet trucks, bottle jacks and tractor hitches, which still need inspecting under Regulation 30.

The periodic cycle is not the only trigger. A competent person must also examine or inspect the equipment:

• before first use, with a certificate of test and examination for fixed equipment (Reg. 52(1)(a)). A new CE-marked mobile machine can rely on the manufacturer's documentation instead, and its first period runs from the date of first use (Reg. 52(2), as amended in 2020);
• after a repair or alteration relevant to safe operation, before the item goes back into service (Reg. 52(1)(c));
• after installation, or after assembly at a new site, where safety depends on how the item is installed (Reg. 30(a)). The same applies after exceptional circumstances such as an accident, a storm or a long lay-up (Reg. 30(b)).

Defects, deadlines and taking equipment out of use

When an examination finds the equipment is only safe once repaired, Regulation 53 requires the competent person to:

• tell the owner and user in writing;
• for a defect that is not yet dangerous, give the period within which it must be repaired;
• where immediate cessation of work has been advised, send a copy of the report to the HSA within 20 days.

Any conditions written on the report bind the employer (Reg. 52(1)(d)). The HSA's guidance adds that repairs should not be carried out during the statutory examination: the report must reflect the condition as found.

Weekly checks on construction sites

Regulation 43(1)(f) requires lifting equipment used on a construction site to be examined weekly by the user. The results must be recorded and kept available for an inspector for 3 months. It is often done by the machine operator. The HSA's guide to the work equipment regulations says the check is narrower than the statutory examination. It should include a full functional test, including the limit switches, but no overload testing. It also lists what to look at:

• the rated capacity indicator;
• ropes, chains, hooks and the structure;
• hydraulic and electrical systems and fuel lines;
• brakes, cab and controls.

The GA2 form follows the same checklist.

Since April 2020, Regulation 43 does not apply to excavators, telehandlers and backhoe loaders used for object handling, which are covered by Regulation 55. Keeping those machines in the weekly round costs little: agree this with your PSCS rather than rely on the exemption.

Worked example: a 12-month examination calendar for a small fleet

Hired-in equipment: what to ask the hire company for

A firm that hires out lifting equipment must itself meet the examination and register duties in Regulations 52 and 54 (Reg. 59). For mobile equipment, the report must travel with the machine (Reg. 54(1)(c)). Before a hired machine starts work, check:

• a copy of the current report of thorough examination, whose ID mark matches the machine on site;
• that the latest date for the next examination is after the planned off-hire date;
• that the report covers the interchangeable accessories supplied with it (forks, jib, basket), and that any slings or shackles come with their own reports;
• the Reg. 55 safe working load certificate if an excavator or telehandler will be used for object handling;
• who does the weekly check on site – the regulation puts it on the user, normally you.

If you hire machines out yourself, a plant hire workbook that flags exams falling due during a hire catches this before the machine leaves the yard.

The register, the reports and how long to keep them

Regulation 54 requires a register of lifting equipment and lifting accessories. It must show each item, its distinguishing number and the dates of first use and of the last thorough examination, and be available to an inspector. The HSA confirms the register can be electronic or printed. Each report must be kept where the equipment is used: at the workplace, at the site office (or the contractor's business address), or, for mobile equipment, on the machine and at the owner's address.

Regulation 54 sets no retention period for reports; weekly records must be kept for 3 months and Regulation 30 inspection records for 5 years. Keeping every GA1 for the life of the item is the simplest rule.

Finally, a thorough examination is not maintenance – the HSA guidance treats them as separate. Servicing to the manufacturer's intervals belongs in a preventive maintenance schedule for your machines and plant, while the statutory examinations stay in the lifting register.