News

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued plans to extend its current cost recovery system so an inspector will charge a fee for an inspection and any subsequent actions when a material fault has been found. The HSE estimates that for an inspection that results in a letter, the cost to business could be around £750.

The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment (Amendment) Regulations SI 2011/1885 make various amendments to the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations SI 2009/1348, in order to implement the provisions contained in Directive 2010/35/EU, on transportable pressure equipment.

They also give certain responsibilities to the:

• Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, relating to class 7 radioactive material;
• Secretary of State for Defence, relating to armed forces transport.

In addition, they deal with class 1 explosives, meaning the Classification and Labelling of Explosives Regulations SI 1983/1140 are revoked, as they are no longer required.

The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI) and the 26 district councils have launched a Safe Maintenance campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of poorly planned maintenance.

The campaign examines the issue of maintenance, why it is important and how operating to a good level of preventive maintenance can save businesses time, money and lives. In addition, it identifies potential hazards associated with a lack of maintenance which will depend on the work being carried out and where it is being done. The hazards are commonly grouped as physical, chemical and biological and psychosocial, and can vary significantly between planned preventive and repair or corrective maintenance tasks.

The campaign is aiming to make sure that maintenance workers and those supervising the works understand potential consequences of their actions or their lack of attention to detail.

Five basic rules are established which should be followed. These include:

• planning;
• making the work area safe;
• using appropriate equipment;
• working as planned;
• making final checks.

For further information on the Safe Maintenance campaign, visit http://cedr.ec/maintenance.

From 6 April 2012, the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations SI 2011/2452 will make it mandatory for owners of air conditioned buildings to lodge inspection reports of air-conditioning systems (above 12kW) on the England and Wales Central Register kept on behalf of the Secretary of State.

They also make a number of changes to the system of compliance and enforcement in respect of energy performance certificates, in particular by extending the compliance and enforcement regime (which currently only applies to domestic sales) to all buildings marketed for sale or rent.

The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Amendment Regulations SSI 2011/285 make various amendments to the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2000/323 in order to strengthen certain requirements and to allow the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to take a more risk-based approach to regulating pollution prevention and control (PPC) activities.

The changes will:

• replace site-specific permit conditions with standard rules which apply to installations or mobile plants;
• allow SEPA to take account of relevant offences committed by company directors' in their previous places of work when checking if an individual is a "fit and proper person" to carry out a waste management activity;
• no longer treat a person as being technically competent if they have simply applied for a Certificate of Technical Competence from the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board (further checks will be required);
• require applicants to prove that they are a "fit and proper person" to carry out a specific waste management activity when applying for a PPC permit variation to introduce that activity;
• remove a number of combustion activities from Section 1.1 of Schedule 1;
• provide a clear distinction between the burning of fuels and the incineration of wastes.

From 8 October 2011, it became a requirement to apply the waste hierarchy. This sets out, in order of priority, the waste management options you must consider when transferring waste. For example:

• prevention;
• preparing for re-use;
• recycling;
• other recovery (such as energy recovery);
• disposal.

The waste hierarchy is established in Directive 2008/98/EC, on waste, and is applied through the:

• Waste (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2011/988, in England and Wales;
• Waste (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2011/226, which amends various legislation, in Scotland:
• Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) SR 2011/127.