For any firm where people lift, carry, push or pull loads by hand. The pack covers avoiding the handling, assessing it on a real task, and reducing the risk.
The duty comes in a set order under regulation 4 of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992: avoid the handling where reasonably practicable, then assess what cannot be avoided, then reduce the risk of injury. A lifting technique course on its own does not do the avoiding or the assessing.
The pack works through avoiding the handling where possible, a TILE assessment of the task, individual, load and environment recorded on a real task, safe lifting technique including moving the feet to turn rather than twisting the spine, team lifts, and when to stop and ask for help: a load heavier than expected, a blocked route, or any pain or strain.
One hazard, done completely, for the whole firm.
The pack also has a theory test answer key. It is supplied separately to the employer, not published in the pack itself, so the test stays a genuine assessment when your own supervisor marks it.
Available where a customer, principal contractor or insurer wants third-party evidence.
You assess your own people in-house using the pack, and send PHW the completed records. PHW checks the records and, where they hold up, issues a certificate carrying a QR code that resolves to a live verification page. The certificate states plainly that the assessment was carried out in-house and verified by PHW, recording PHW's verification of that in-house assessment; records that are too thin are rejected rather than certified.
HSE prosecutions in this line of work.
£120,000 + £6,270 costs · 2026-07-17
Workers were exposed to inhalable dust above exposure limits and were required to manually lift 25kg ingredient sacks daily.
Read the case →£250,000 · 2025-10-31
While devanning a shipping container in the yard, a worker was fatally trapped when 120kg metal frames that had not been secured to the container wall fell back onto the worker.
Read the case →