HC Deb 13 December 1976 vol 922 cc491-3W
Mr. Graham Page

asked the Secretary of State for Energy what further regulations he proposes to make in order to meet the complaints of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments in their 28th Report of last Session (HC 54-xxxix) that the form and the purport of the Offshore Installations (Operational Safety, Health and Welfare) Regulations 1976 and the Submarine Pipe-Lines (Diving Operations) Regulations 1976 were not clear and required elucidation.

Dr. J. Dickson Mabon

I have carefully considered the report. The Offshore Installations (Operational Safety, Health and Welfare) Regulations 1976 are being reviewed to determine whether action is required to remove any doubts about who in any given circumstances is meant by "the responsible person".

Mr. Eadie

Details of electricity supplied by different types of public supply power stations are published in Tables 70 and 77 of the "Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, 1976" available in the Library of the House. The following is the information:

The Committee also question why it was a criminal offence to fail to issue certain instructions but not an offence to fail to obey them. I believe the regulations properly lay the onus on management. The parent Act—the Mineral Workings (Offshore Installations) Act 1971—gives no power to delegate to management the making of rules backed by criminal sanctions. To produce criminal consequences the duties would have to be set out in the regulations themselves, not in managerial instructions, but this would not be practicable for domestic day to day arrangements subject to frequent change. There are, however, two kinds of existing sanction for disobedience to instructions, namely normal discipline, in an extreme case dismissal, and, under Section 5(3) of the 1971 Act, for disobedience to the installation manager's lawful commands, a fine on summary conviction not exceeding £50.

The Joint Committee made a similar point in relation to the Submarine Pipe-Lines (Diving Operations) Regulations 1976, to which similar considerations apply. It also suggested that it would be desirable for a single set of diving regulations to be prepared to replace the present three sets covering diving from ships, from installations and in connection with pipe-line works respectively. The three sets of regulations, apart from differences made necessary by the nature of the case, the different Acts and the persons on whom the duties are laid by those Acts, were in fact harmonised as far as possible.

However, following the Prime Minister's announcement on 30th July of the Government's decision to extend the Health and Safety at Work, &c, Act 1974 offshore, an interdepartmental working party under the chairmanship of the Health and Safety Executive has completed a study with a view to producing unified health and safety regulations. It will be for the Health and Safety Commission to consider what further action to take in this matter.