The Ammonium Nitrate Materials (High Nitrogen Content) Safety Regulations 2003

Misdescription of relevant ammonium nitrate material

9.—(1) No person shall—

(a) import,

(b) supply, or

(c) keep (other than a keeper as a final user for use as a fertiliser),

material which, although being relevant ammonium nitrate material, is described for business purposes as containing a lower proportion of nitrogen than would classify it as such.

(2) Where an inspector suspects that any material identified by him might be relevant ammonium nitrate material, but is so described for business purposes, he may take one aggregate sample totalling approximately 3 kilogrammes in weight, which he shall divide into three approximately equal parts of approximately 1 kilogramme each and—

(a) submit one such part to an agricultural analyst appointed under section 67 to the Agriculture Act 1970(1) for him to carry out a test to determine whether it is an relevant ammonium nitrate material;

(b) give a second part to the person regarded by him as the keeper of the material; and

(c) place a third part in a store which is appropriate to ensure that the third part is maintained in as constant a condition as is reasonably practicable until such time as it may be required to be submitted to an independent test under paragraph (3)(b);

and if the part submitted to the agricultural analyst is determined to be relevant ammonium nitrate material then, as specified in paragraph (3), the identified material shall be treated as relevant ammonium nitrate material.

(3) The treatment of material under paragraph (2) as relevant ammonium nitrate material shall—

(a) subject to paragraph (4) commence on the giving by the inspector, to the person regarded by the inspector as the keeper of the material in question, of notice of the result of the determination, and,

(b) continue until the independent tester, following service of a counter-notice (requiring an independent test), by the regarded keeper on the enforcing authority which appointed the inspector, within 28 days of service of the notice by the inspector on the regarded keeper, notifies the authority that he has determined that the third part is not a part of relevant ammonium nitrate material.

(4) Where—

(a) a person is, at the date when these Regulations come into force, the keeper, but not the manufacturer, of material that is described for business purposes as indicated in paragraph (1), or

(b) where any person receives such material from such a keeper before the expiry of the transitional stage,

and the material is determined before the expiry of the transitional stage on a test under this regulation as being relevant ammonium nitrate material, then the treatment of the material as relevant ammonium nitrate material shall commence immediately following such determination, and the requirements of regulation 7 shall apply with the exception that the sample to be used for a detonation resistance test shall be taken and submitted as soon as reasonably practicable.

(5) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a) an “independent tester” is a laboratory accredited under standard ISO 17025 (general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories) of the International Organisation for Standardisation and based in the European Union which has sufficient equipment, facilities and expertise to conduct the independent test under paragraph (3);

(b) a “test” is one involving one or more methods specified in the results of a determination which the person making the determination certifies in his communication of the results of his determination as being fit for the purpose of establishing the percentage of nitrogen derived from ammonium nitrate; and

(c) it shall be the duty of the enforcing authority which has appointed the inspector, on receipt of the counter-notice specified in paragraph (3)(b), to arrange for the independent test of the third sample as soon as is reasonably practicable, to notify the regarded keeper of details of where and by whom the test is to take place, and to notify the regarded keeper of the results of the test as soon as practicable after it has received those results.

(1)

1970 c. 40.