The Employer’s Liability (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Employer’s Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the 1999 Regulations”). The 1999 Regulations specify employers who are exempted from the requirements of Part III of the Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment and Compulsory Insurance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 (“the 1972 Order”) to insure and maintain insurance against liability for personal injury suffered by their employees and arising out of and in the course of their employment. The specified employers are certain public bodies; the specified classes of employer include any employer to the extent that he is required to insure under a compulsory motor insurance scheme by virtue of the fact that his employees are carried on, or are alighting from or are entering into, a motor vehicle. The exemptions specified in the 1999 Regulations are additional to those contained in Article 7 of the 1972 Order.

The Regulations omit regulation 4(4) and (5) of the 1999 Regulations. Paragraph (4) required an employer to retain a copy of its employer liability insurance certificate for forty years. Paragraph (5) was a consequential provision to paragraph (4), providing for the retention of certificates, and is therefore also being omitted (regulation 3(2)).

The Regulations substitute regulation 5(1) and (2) of the 1999 Regulations. Under the new provisions, the requirements for the display of the certificate will be satisfied if the certificate is made available in electronic form and is reasonably accessible to the relevant employees (regulation 3(3)).

The Regulations make a consequential amendment to regulation 6(b) of the 1999 Regulations (regulation 3(4)).

The Regulations remove the Health and Social Services Boards established under Article 16 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 (S.I. 1972/1265 (N.I. 14)), the Mental Health Commission for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Central Services Agency, and the Staffs Council for Health and Personal Social Services from the exemptions specified in Schedule 2 to the 1999 Regulations and replace these with the following bodies:-

(i) The Health and Social Care Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority;

(ii) The Patient and Client Council;

(iii) The Regional Agency for Public Health and Social Well-being;

(iv) The Regional Business Services Organisation; and

(v) The Regional Health and Social Care Board.

Also added to the exemptions specified in Schedule 2 to the 1999 Regulations are:-

(vi) The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland; and

(vii) The Northern Ireland Library Authority.