Transport of Dangerous Goods (Safety Advisers) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

1.  These Regulations implement, as respects Northern Ireland, Council Directive 96/35/EC on the appointment and vocational qualification of safety advisers for the transport of dangerous goods by road, rail and inland waterway (O.J. No. L145, 19.6.96, p. 10).

2.  Terms and expressions used in the Regulations are defined in regulation 2; references in the Regulations to the transport of dangerous goods are references to the transport, the related loading or the related unloading of those goods. The scope of the Regulations is defined in regulation 3 and Schedule 1; the Regulations apply to a self-employed person as they apply to an employer.

3.  The Regulations—

(a) prohibit the transport of dangerous goods by road, railway and inland waterway by an employer unless he has appointed a safety adviser (regulation 4(1));

(b) require an employer to make arrangements for ensuring adequate co-operation between the safety advisers he appoints, impose requirements with respect to the number of advisers to be appointed and ensuring any such adviser has adequate time and means to fulfil his functions and duties, and require an employer to provide any adviser with adequate information and facilities to perform his functions and duties (regulation 4(2) to (7));

(c) require a safety adviser to have the functions necessary to advise the employer who appointed him as to health, safety and environmental matters in connection with the transport of dangerous goods, to include specified functions (including the preparation of annual reports) (regulation 5(1) and Schedule 2);

(d) require a safety adviser to prepare a report on specified accidents (regulation 5(2));

(e) require the keeping of reports (regulation 6);

(f) prohibit the appointment of an individual as a safety adviser unless he holds a vocational training certificate appropriate to the modes of transport used by the employer and to all dangerous goods or one or more of the groups of dangerous goods specified and transported by the employer, and impose ancillary requirements with regard to the issue, form, validity and renewal of such certificates (regulation 7 and Schedules 3 and 4);

(g) provide for the mutual recognition of vocational training certificates issued in other member States of the European Community or in Great Britain (regulation 8);

(h) impose requirements to provide the Secretary of State or any vehicle examiner on request with the name of any safety adviser, a copy of any accident and annual reports and any vocational training certificate (regulation 9);

(i) provide that the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland and the Secretary of State for Defence may grant exemptions from any requirement or prohibition of the Regulations in specified circumstances (regulation 10);

(j) make minor amendments to the Carriage of Dangerous Goods (Classification, Packaging and Labelling) and Use of Transportable Pressure Receptacles Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (S.R. 1997 No. 247) and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (S.R. 1997 No. 248) (Regulations 11 and 12); and

(k) provide, by amendment of the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (S.R. 1998 No. 125), for the payment of fees for the issue of vocational training certificates (regulation 13 and Schedule 5).

4.  Copies of the Approved Carriage List (ISBN 0-7176-1223-6) are available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 6FS; Waterstones Bookshop; The Stationery Office Bookshop, 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD; and other booksellers.

5.  In Great Britain the corresponding Regulations are the Transport of Dangerous Goods (Safety Advisers) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/257). The Health and Safety Executive has prepared a cost benefit assessment in relation to those Regulations. A copy of that assessment, together with a Northern Ireland Supplement prepared by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, are held at the offices of the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland at 83 Ladas Drive, Belfast BT6 9FR, from where copies may be obtained on request.

6.  A person who contravenes the Regulations or any requirement or prohibition imposed thereunder is guilty of an offence under Article 31 of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (currently £5,000) or, on conviction on indictment, to a fine.