Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA)

The Lifting Equipment Engineers Association is the trade association for companies that examine and supply lifting equipment. This guide covers membership, LEEA training and how buyers can check a member.

Overview

What the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association is

The Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) is a trade association for companies that examine, repair, make and supply lifting equipment. It also trains and qualifies the engineers who carry out thorough examinations.

In short

LEEA began in 1944 as the London Chain Testers Association and has had its present name since 1988.
Full members are companies that examine and verify lifting equipment, and they undergo technical audits.
Its online tools let a buyer check a member or verify an engineer’s TEAM card.
Membership is voluntary. LOLER asks for a competent person, not a LEEA member.

Full name	Lifting Equipment Engineers Association
Abbreviation	LEEA
Type	Trade association, run by Lifting Equipment Engineers Association Limited (company limited by guarantee, no. 03660509)
Founded	1944, as the London Chain Testers Association
Remit	The lifting equipment industry, in the UK and internationally
Northern Ireland	Covered as part of the UK. LEEA has members worldwide.
Website	leeaint.com

Role

What LEEA does

The association’s history runs from the Chain Testers Association of Great Britain in 1946 to the LEEA name in 1988. It launched COPSULE, its code of practice, in 1981, and its training courses followed in 1983.

It says it represents its members on standards bodies at home and abroad, and with HSE. Its membership categories separate the companies that examine equipment from those that make, sell, hire or service it:

Full member	An organisation verifying lifting equipment for profit, which LEEA’s directors judge competent to give an adequate service
Associate member	An organisation designing, making, supplying, hiring, servicing, repairing or training, including approved public bodies
Provisional member	A company going through the application process, for up to 12 months

The requirements members must meet are set out in LEEA’s own document, LEEA-042.

Training

LEEA training and qualifications

The LEEA Academy runs the training. The LEEA Foundation Certificate is a three-day course, also offered as e-learning, and leads on to LEEA’s advanced qualifications. There are seven diplomas, each covering one area:

lifting accessories
manual lifting machines
powered lifting machines
supporting structures
bridge and gantry cranes
mobile cranes
offshore containers

LEEA issues TEAM cards to qualified engineers employed by full member companies. The card shows the holder’s identity and LEEA qualifications, and the scheme is accredited by CSCS.

Publications

What LEEA publishes

LEEA’s main publication is the Code of Practice for the Safe Use of Lifting Equipment, known as COPSULE, which is free to download. Its technical information pages add safety alerts and UKCA guidance. The LEEA-059 series gives guidance on documentation and marking for six groups of lifting equipment, and LEEA-063, in UK and international parts, covers making and repairing mechanically assembled grade 8 chain slings.

Lifting

Why LEEA matters for lifting and machine moving

In Great Britain, slings, shackles, hoists and cranes used at work need regular thorough examination by a competent person under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). LEEA membership is one way a buyer can check competence. Its Find a Member directory filters by service, and anyone can verify a TEAM card or check a LEEA training certificate online.

Taking a press or a machine tool off its base, every sling, spreader beam and jack needs a current report of thorough examination, and so does any eyebolt or other accessory fitted to the machine for the lift.

A blue lifeboat on a wheeled carriage hanging from slings and a spreader frame below a crane hook, above a lorry on a quayside — A boat and its carriage lifted on slings and a spreader frame.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland and further reading

LEEA works across the UK and internationally, and its directory filters members by country. Northern Ireland has its own LOLER, from 1999, enforced by HSENI and the district councils.

Sources and further reading

Questions

Common questions

Who can carry out a thorough examination?

A competent person with the knowledge and experience to find defects and judge how serious they are. LOLER in Great Britain and its 1999 Northern Ireland version set no requirement to belong to LEEA.