The Diving at Work Regulations 1997

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations:

“the 1995 Order” means the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Application outside Great Britain) Order 1995(1);

“approved qualification” means such qualification as is approved by the Executive under regulation 14;

“certificate of medical fitness to dive” means a certificate issued in accordance with regulation 15;

“diver” means a person at work who dives;

“diving contractor” shall be construed in accordance with regulation 5;

“diving operation” means a diving operation identified in the diving project plan pursuant to regulation 8(3);

“diving operation record” means the record required to be kept in accordance with regulation 6(3)(e);

“diving project” means any activity, made up of one or more diving operations, in which at least one person takes part or will take part as a diver and extends from the time when that person, or the first such person, commences to prepare to dive until that person, or the last such person, has left the water, chamber or other environment in which the dive, or any part of the dive, took place and has completed any requisite decompression procedures, including, where it may be reasonably anticipated that this will be needed, any therapeutic recompression;

“diving project plan” means a document prepared under regulation 6(2)(a) in accordance with regulation 8;

“Executive” means the Health and Safety Executive;

“supervise” means the exercise of direct personal control and “supervising” shall be construed accordingly;

“supervisor” means a person appointed to supervise under regulation 6(2)(b);

“visiting force” has the same meaning as it does for the purposes of any provision of Part I of the Visiting Forces Act 1952(2).

(2) For the purposes of these Regulations a person “dives” if—

(a) he enters—

(i) water or any other liquid; or

(ii) a chamber in which he is subject to pressure greater than 100 millibars above atmospheric pressure; and

(b) in order to survive in such an environment he breathes in air or other gas at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure;

and references to “a dive” and “dive” shall be construed accordingly;

(3) Any reference in these Regulations to—

(a) a numbered regulation is a reference to the regulation in these Regulations so numbered; and

(b) a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph so numbered in the regulation in which the reference appears.

(1)

S.I. 1995/263.

(2)

1952 c. 67.