Management of Health and Safety at Work and Fire Precautions (Workplace) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

1.  These Regulations amend the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 (“the 2000 Regulations”) and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”).

2.  These Regulations replace regulation 22 of the 2000 Regulations (which provided that breach of a duty imposed by the Regulations could not confer a right of action in any civil proceedings), to the effect that employees may bring civil claims against their employers where they are in breach of duties imposed by the 2000 Regulations (but as respects claims by non-employees the exclusion of civil liability for breach of duties imposed by the 2000 Regulations remains). They also make amendments to the 2001 Regulations so as to achieve the same effect in relation to breaches of duties imposed by Part II of those Regulations and regulations 1 to 5, 7 to 12 and 13(2) and (3) of the 2000 Regulations in so far as those regulations impose requirements concerning general fire precautions to be taken or observed by an employer (other than in “excepted workplaces”, as defined by those Regulations).

3.  Regulation 2 of these Regulations replaces regulation 2 of the 2000 Regulations. The effect of the new regulation is to alter the disapplication of the 2000 Regulations with regard to activities on ships. The exclusion of occasional work or short-term work involving domestic service in a private household from the scope of regulations 3(4), 5, 10(2) and 19 of the 2000 Regulations has now been repealed.

4.  Paragraphs 2 to 4 of regulation 3 amend regulation 9 of the 2001 Regulations. The amendments make the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland the enforcing authority in respect of Part II of the 2001 Regulations in relation to a workplace which is or is in or on a ship in the course of construction or repair and a workplace, other than a building on the surface at a mine, which comprises premises of a description specified in Part I of Schedule 1 to the Fire Certificates (Special Premises) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1991. The amendments also take away the enforcement role the fire authority had in respect of such workplaces (other than a building on the surface at a mine) for the purposes of regulations 1 to 5, 7 to 12 and 13(2) and (3) of the 2000 Regulations; this role will now pass to the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland.

5.  In Great Britain, the corresponding Regulations are the Management of Health and Safety at Work and Fire Precautions (Workplace) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/2457). The Great Britain Health and Safety Executive has prepared a regulatory impact assessment in relation to those Regulations and a copy of that assessment together with a Northern Ireland Supplement prepared by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland is held at the offices of that Executive at 83 Ladas Drive, Belfast BT6 9FR from where a copy may be obtained on request.