The Offshore Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations
The Offshore Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002 are scheduled to come into force on 17 September 2002. They make two changes to the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995 (MAR).
First, they amend the definition of "offshore installation" used in MAR to include supplementary units. A "supplementary unit" is defined in the new Regulations as a fixed or floating structure, other than a vessel, for providing energy, information or substances to an offshore installation.
The aim to ensure that the same level of safety will apply to workers dealing with "supplementary units" as applies when they are working on a parent installation. The effect will be that MAR will extend to cover, for example, tidal or wave-powered energy generation units and wind-farms, as well as other units that provide power, control, communications and chemical injection facilities to offshore installations.
The new Regulations also modify the provisions in MAR dealing with exceptions from the definition of "offshore installation". The significant change relates to mobile structures which have been taken out of use. This modification has the effect that a structure once taken out of use only comes back within the scope of MAR once it is being moved with a view to being used for the purposes specified in MAR. Previously it would come back within the scope if it were merely intended for such use.
These amendments were prompted by the need to ensure that the definition of "offshore installation" contained in MAR is consistent with that contained in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Application Outside Great Britain) Order 2001. This order, which came into force on 11 July 2001, replaced a similar order dating from 1995 and, amongst other things, introduced "supplementary units" into its own definition of "offshore installation".
The change in the definition of "offshore installation" in MAR simultaneously changes the meaning of "installation" in various other regulations such as the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations and Offshore Installations (Prevention of Fire and Explosion, and Emergency Response) Regulations 1995 and Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992.
For further information please contact Lorna Ingram in our Aberdeen office at lorna.ingram@cms-cmck.com or on +44 (0)1224 622002.
