Street Works (Qualifications of Supervisors and Operatives) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These regulations prescribe the qualifications needed for supervisors (regulation 2) and trained operatives (regulation 3), one of each of whom is required by Article 27(1) and (2) of the Street Works (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (subject to exceptions) to supervise or be on site at all times when an undertaker executes street works involving, in the case of both supervisors and trained operatives, breaking up the street, or any sewer, drain, or tunnel under it, or tunnelling or boring under the street and, in the case of trained operatives, opening the street. A supervisor or a trained operative has a prescribed qualification if an approved body has issued him with a certificate of competence showing that he has been assessed as having achieved the relevant units of competence for the work being executed as set out in Schedules 1 and 2 (operatives) and Schedules 3 and 4 (supervisors). Provision is made for the recognition of equivalent qualifications obtained in another EEA State (regulations 2(1)(b) and 3(1)(b)). Regulation 4 prescribes the City and Guilds of London Institute, the Scottish Vocational Education Council (“SCOTVEC”) and the Certification and Assessment Board for the Water Industry as the approved bodies for the issuing of certificates of competence and provides that SCOTVEC is the approved registration body to keep the register of certificates. Regulation 4(4) provides that the Department may withdraw approval from a named body if it fails satisfactorily to discharge its functions.

Regulation 5 provides that a certificate expires after five years, but may be re-registered if certain conditions are satisfied.

Regulation 6 makes transitional provisions.