Manual handling: the law and what actually works.

What the law says

The Regulations cover lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying and supporting loads by hand or bodily force, and a load can be a person or an animal. Under regulation 4, employers must:

• Avoid hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable.
• Make a suitable and sufficient assessment of any hazardous manual handling that cannot be avoided.
• Reduce the risk of injury to the lowest level reasonably practicable.
• Give general indications and, where reasonably practicable, precise information on the weight of each load and the heaviest side of an off-centre load.
• Review the assessment if it may no longer be valid or the work has changed significantly.

Note: Employees must make full and proper use of any safe system of work provided (regulation 5).

Assess the task with TILE

TILE is a simple way to remember what HSE asks you to consider. Watch the job being done and ask the people who do it.

• Task

  Questions to ask

  Does it involve twisting, stooping, reaching up, lifting from the floor, long carries or repeated effort without rest?

• Individual

  Questions to ask

  Does it need unusual strength? Is anyone new, young, pregnant, recovering from injury or living with a health condition?

• Load

  Questions to ask

  Is it heavy, bulky, hard to grip, unstable, sharp or hot?

• Environment

  Questions to ask

  Is space tight? Are floors uneven, slippery or on different levels? Is there poor light, wind, heat or cold?

Note: HSE's risk filters in INDG143 and its MAC tool help you find the higher-risk tasks first.

Controls that work on site and in workshops

In construction, musculoskeletal disorders such as back problems made up 53% of work-related ill health, an estimated 41,000 workers a year on average over 2022/23 to 2024/25 (HSE, 2025). HSE guidance suggests:

• Avoid the lift: have materials delivered to where they will be used, and plan crane or telehandler lifts while there is access.
• Use aids such as pallet trucks, sack trolleys, hoists and lifting grips that suit the job.
• Change the load: order lighter blocks, split large loads and keep materials dry so they do not gain weight.
• Change the layout: store heavy items at waist height and cut carrying distances and twisting.
• Change the work: set a sensible pace, and rest and rotate people on the heaviest tasks.
• Tell people the weights, and train them for the tasks they actually do.

What the courts have said

• Koonjul v Thameslink Healthcare Services [2000] PIQR P123

  The Court of Appeal said regulation 4 applies where there is a real risk of injury: a foreseeable possibility, which need not be a probability. It also said assessments need an element of realism, so focus on the tasks that carry a real risk.