6 April 2004 - Consultation on COMAH Regulation 8
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation on the review of safety reports, in terms of the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations 1999, which came into force on 1 April 1999. These Regulations implemented the Seveso II Directive (except for the land use planning requirements), and replaced the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1984 (CIMAH).
COMAH applies mainly to the chemical industry, but also to some storage activities, explosives and nuclear sites, and other industries where threshold quantities of dangerous substances identified in the Regulations are kept or used.
In particular, the consultation document seeks views on:
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the proposed approach in relation to the “five-year review” of safety reports
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how to encourage other change-related review activity in the interim
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how industry and the HSE can best work together to achieve industry-wide adoption of the “living safety report” concept.
Owners of COMAH ‘top-tier’ (TT) establishments are required to review their safety reports:
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at least every 5 years (Regulation 8(1)(a))
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because of new facts or to take account of new technical knowledge about safety matters (Regulation 8(1)(b))
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whenever the operator makes a change to the safety management system which could have significant repercussions with respect to the prevention of major accidents or the limitation of consequences of major accidents to persons and the environment (Regulation 8(1)(c))
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in advance of any proposed modification to the establishment or an installation, the process carried on, or the nature or quantity of dangerous substances present and where that modification could have significant repercussions as above (Regulations 8(4)(a)).
The closing date for comments is 17 May 2004. The consultation documents can be found here.
