There is no forklift licence in the UK. What you need instead

The plain position

HSE states it directly: there is no such thing as a lift-truck licence. It also notes that there is no legal requirement for certificates, which are often confused with licences, while adding that accredited training providers will always issue them and HSE encourages their use as a good way of demonstrating that training has been provided (HSE, voluntary accreditation schemes for lift-truck training).

There is also no central register. HSE's own guidance to an operator who has lost their certificate is that there is no state system for training of lift truck operators as there is for drivers on the public highway, and therefore no central organisation holding copies: you go back to the training provider, your previous employer, or the body that accredited the training (HSE lift truck FAQs).

What the employer is actually required to hold

Adequate training, under PUWER 1998

Regulation 9 requires every employer to ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including the methods which may be adopted, the risks involved and the precautions to be taken. Supervisors and managers get comparable training.

Training to the L117 standard

HSE's Approved Code of Practice Rider-operated lift trucks: Operator training and safe use sets what good looks like. Following an ACOP is not compulsory in itself, but if you are prosecuted and did not follow it, you have to show you complied with the law some other way.

Evidence, in whatever form

Certificates, training records and monitoring assessments. HSE says certificates issued by an accredited provider quote the accreditation number, the accrediting body, and the instructor's name and registration number, and should record any limitation on the training, for example a maximum lift height.

What accreditation adds, and what it does not

• Accreditation is voluntary. HSE no longer administers an accrediting bodies scheme.
• HSE says using an accredited training provider provides some assurance that the training will be at least to the standard described in the ACOP and guidance.
• Training may also be delivered by awarding organisations under other quality assured regimes, or by independent and in-house providers. None of those is automatically worse; the burden of showing the training was adequate simply sits more heavily on you.
• Named accrediting bodies operating in this market include ITSSAR, which writes and monitors training standards for mechanical handling equipment, and the Association of Industrial Truck Trainers (AITT). HSE names the Accrediting Bodies Association (ABA) as a source of advice on workplace transport training.

Ask a provider which body accredits them and what the certificate will record, including any limitation. A certificate that does not say which truck category and which lift height it covers is worth less than it looks. Then see what drives the price.