Mines and Quarries Act 1954

54 Provisions as to support rules. E+W+S

(1) Rules made under or by virtue of any of the foregoing provisions of this Act relating to support are hereafter in this Act referred to as “support rules”.

(2) Support rules with respect to a mine shall comply with such requirements with respect to the form thereof and the matters to be specified therein as may be prescribed, and may impose upon persons employed at the mine such duties and prohibitions as it appears to the manager of the mine requisite or expedient to impose on them for securing compliance with any requirement imposed by or by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act relating to support.

(3) If, with respect to any support rules for the time being in force with respect to a mine, an inspector is of opinion that the rules require modification in any particular, he may serve on the manager of the mine a notice specifying the rules, stating that he is of opinion aforesaid and specifying the particular in which, in his opinion, the rules require modification and the nature of the modification that, in his opinion, ought to be made, and requiring the manager, before the expiration of such period beginning with the date on which the notice becomes operative as may be specified therein, to modify the rules in accordance with the tenor of the notice.

The provisions of Part XV of this Act with respect to references upon notices served by inspectors shall apply to a notice served under this subsection.

(4) A support rule which is inconsistent with the provisions of any regulation shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be of no effect.

(5) A copy of all support rules for the time being in force with respect to a mine shall be kept at the office at the mine or at such other place as may be approved by an inspector and where, by virtue of paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section twelve of this Act, districts are delimited in a mine for the purpose of the discharge of their duties by persons appointed for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements imposed with respect to the mine by virtue of paragraph (a) of that subsection, a copy of so much of the said rules as relates to each district shall be supplied by the manager of the mine to the person so appointed who is in charge of the district and shall be kept posted at the entrance to the district in such characters and in such a position as to be easily seen and read by the persons employed in the district.

(6) It shall be the duty of the manager of every mine with respect to which support rules are for the time being in force to supply to every person employed at the mine whose duties consist of, or include, the setting of supports in accordance with a system specified in the rules, a document explaining either verbally or diagrammatically, or partly in the one way and partly in the other, the effect of the rules so far as they concern him.

(7) A document purporting to be certified by the manager of a mine to be a true copy of any support rules for the time being in force with respect to the mine shall be receivable in evidence and shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be such a copy.