The Agriculture (Tractor Cabs) Regulations 1974

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These regulations revoke and consolidate the Agriculture (Tractor Cabs) Regulations 1967 and the Agriculture (Tractor Cabs) (Amendment) Regulations 1973, with two parallel amendments, which are printed in bold type.

Tractors are required to be fitted with safety cabs (an expression which includes safety frames) when driven by workers employed in agriculture, except where it is not practicable to do so in hop-gardens, hop-yards, orchards and buildings.

Provision is made for the issuing of certificates of approval for safety cabs by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Scotland, acting jointly, and for the marking of approved safety cabs by their manufacturers with symbols incorporating a crown inside a triangle, together with supplementary marks. A symbol which also includes the letter Q is reserved for safety cabs whose internal noise levels are not more than 90 dBA. Restrictions are imposed on the application of marks to safety cabs, and on their alteration or removal. The application of false marks is prohibited.

It is made an offence for a worker to drive a tractor, or for anyone to cause or permit him to do so, without a marked safety cab, or if it is known that a safety cab with which it is fitted is not approved, and employers must ensure that marked and, so far as is reasonably practicable, approved safety cabs are fitted. Workers are obliged to report overturning or damage.

Tractors must be properly fitted with approved and appropriately marked safety cabs when they are first sold or let on hire to a person for use by him in agriculture, and no new safety cab may be sold or let on hire unless it is both approved and marked. Used tractors let on hire must have marked safety cabs.

The Minister and the Secretary of State are given power to issue certificates of exemption.

Tractors first sold, let on hire or loaned for use in agriculture before 1st September 1970 are not required to have approved safety cabs until 1st September 1977. From 1st June 1976 (under the previous regulations this date was 1st September 1975) all new tractors will have to be fitted with safety cabs which satisfy the noise requirements, and from 1st September 1977 all new safety cabs will have to satisfy those requirements. There is no restriction on fitting approved safety cabs which do not satisfy the noise requirements to tractors first sold for use in agriculture before June 1976, and approved cabs fitted to such tractors will not have to be replaced by cabs which meet the noise requirements.