UK Statutory Instrument SI 1992 United Kingdom

Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

Subject to the exceptions specified in paragraph 2 below, these Regulations give effect as respects Great Britain to the substantive provisions of Council Directive 90/269/EEC on the minimum health and safety requirements for the manual handling of loads where there is a risk particularly of back injury to workers (OJ …

Read it on legislation.gov.uk (opens in a new tab)
Enforced by
HSE
Status
In Force
Penalty ceiling
Prosecution 2 of 3 obligations carry an unlimited fine. 1 has no criminal penalty — flagged in the list below.

Does it bind you?

Business-side roles with duties under this instrument.

Employer2 Employee1

Other Acts binding the same actors

If a role above is yours, these are the other instruments that most often bind it.

Employer — also bound by 701 other Acts
TULRCA 1992 72 duties
Employee — also bound by 193 other Acts

What it requires

Regulations creating concrete business duties or carrying penalties, grouped as the instrument is structured. Titles link to the source text — blue means you’re leaving for legislation.gov.uk.

s.004 Duties of employers (opens in a new tab) Prosecution
  • Avoid or assess and reduce risks from manual handlingEmployer

Unlimited fine

s.005 Duty of employees (opens in a new tab) Prosecution
  • Use safe systems of work for manual handlingEmployee

Unlimited fine

6 other provisions — procedural and definitional
s.001 Citation and commencement
s.002 Interpretation (opens in a new tab)
s.003 Disapplication of Regulations (opens in a new tab)
s.006 Exemption certificates (opens in a new tab)
s.007 Extension outside Great Britain (opens in a new tab)
s.008 Repeals and revocations (opens in a new tab)
Schedules

Schedules

1 of 1 shown
s.001 FACTORS TO WHICH THE EMPLOYER MUST HAVE REGARD AND QUESTIONS HE MUST CONSIDER WHEN MAKING AN ASSESSMENT OF MANUAL HANDLING OPERATIONS (opens in a new tab) Regulated
  • Assess manual handling operations using prescribed factorsEmployer

Help complying

Guvnor’s practical routes through this instrument.

Meet environmental compliance requirements

Navigate your environmental obligations including waste duty of care, pollution prevention, packaging responsibilities, and energy reporting

Meet workplace health and safety requirements

A comprehensive journey for UK employers to understand and comply with health and safety law. Covers the legal framework (HASAWA 1974, MHSWR …

Run a construction business

Ongoing compliance, site safety, and operational requirements for established construction businesses

Grow your construction business

Scale your construction business - win public contracts, build your workforce, achieve accreditations, and manage subcontractors at scale

Managing business waste and duty of care compliance

Navigate your legal obligations for business waste - duty of care, waste carriers, transfer notes, recycling separation, and digital waste tracking

Set up a quarrying and mining business

Extract stone, sand, gravel, clay, salt, peat or other minerals. Get planning permission and the permits for your site, then run the …

Comply with manual handling regulations

Avoid hazardous manual handling wherever you reasonably can. Where you can't, assess the risks using the TILE factors (task, individual, load and …
11 more guides that reference this instrument
Control wood dust and woodworking machinery in a furniture factory Control dust, firedamp and explosion risks in a coal mine Control explosion and major-accident hazards at a refinery or coke works Control explosion, well and major-accident risks in petroleum extraction Control fume, explosive atmospheres and major-accident hazards at a metal production plant Control fume, isocyanates and machinery risks in a rubber or plastics factory Control respirable crystalline silica in a mineral products factory Health and safety for retail premises Meet your environmental duties on a construction site Run a metal ore mine under the Mines Regulations 2014 Run a safe quarry under the Quarries Regulations 1999

Duty extraction and severity labels are Guvnor’s analysis of the instrument, not the instrument itself. Always verify against the linked source text.