The Quarries Regulations 1999

PART IV ADDITIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REQUIREMENTS

Compliance with Part IV

17.  The operator shall ensure that regulations 18 to 23 are in each case complied with as appropriate having regard to the features of the quarry, the nature and circumstances of the work carried on there or to a specific risk.

Permits to work

18.—(1) The operator shall ensure that a system is in place so as to ensure that any work involving—

(a) the carrying out of hazardous operations; or

(b) usually straightforward operations which may interact with other activities to cause serious hazards,

is not carried out unless a permit to carry out that work has been issued.

(2) Such permits to work shall specify—

(a) the conditions to be fulfilled; and

(b) the precautions to be taken before, during and after the operation concerned,

in order to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of any person affected by that operation.

(3) Such permits to work shall be—

(a) issued, signed and dated by a suitable person in the management structure; and then

(b) accepted, signed and dated by a further suitable person.

Safety drills

19.—(1) The operator shall ensure that safety drills are held at regular intervals for persons at work at the quarry.

(2) Such safety drills shall be for the following purposes—

(a) to train the persons who work at the quarry in the appropriate actions to be taken in an emergency including, where appropriate, the correct use, handling or operation of emergency equipment; and

(b) to train and check the skills of such persons to whom specific duties involving the use, handling or operation of such equipment have been assigned in the event of an emergency.

Fire and explosion hazards

20.—(1) The operator shall ensure that no person at work at the quarry uses a naked flame or carries out any work which could give rise to a risk of an unintended explosion or fire unless sufficient measures to prevent such an explosion or fire are taken.

(2) No person shall smoke in any part of a quarry where there is a risk of fire or explosion.

Control of harmful and explosive atmospheres

21.—(1) It shall be the duty of the operator to ensure that—

(a) steps are taken in order to determine whether potentially explosive substances are present in the atmosphere and, where such substances are present, to measure the concentration of such substances in the atmosphere;

(b) automatic devices designed to—

(i) monitor continuously the concentration of explosive or flammable gases in the atmosphere,

(ii) trigger an alarm if such concentration reaches a dangerous level, and

(iii) cut off power to any plant which, because of the concentration of such gases in the atmosphere, gives rise to a risk to the health and safety of any person,

are provided;

(c) where devices are provided in accordance with paragraph (b)(i), a record of the levels of concentration of such gases in the atmosphere shall be made at such intervals as are specified in the health and safety document;

(d) at any place in the quarry where there is a risk of the occurrence or accumulation of an explosive atmosphere, all necessary measures are taken with a view to—

(i) preventing such occurrence and accumulation, or, where this is not practicable,

(ii) preventing the ignition of such an atmosphere; and

(e) at any place in the quarry where there is a risk of the occurrence or accumulation of a substance harmful to health in the atmosphere, appropriate measures are taken in order to—

(i) prevent such occurrence and accumulation, or, where this is not practicable,

(ii) extract or disperse that harmful substance,

in such a way that persons are not placed at risk.

(2) Without prejudice to the requirements of the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992(1), the operator shall ensure that whenever persons at work are present at any place in the quarry where they may be exposed to a substance harmful to health in the atmosphere—

(a) appropriate and sufficient breathing and resuscitation equipment is available; and

(b) a sufficient number of persons trained in the use of such equipment is present.

(3) The operator shall ensure that the equipment referred to at paragraph (2)(a) is suitably stored and maintained.

Danger areas

22.  The operator shall ensure that—

(a) any danger areas in the quarry are clearly marked;

(b) equipment or barriers designed to prevent inadvertent entry by any unauthorised person are installed at any danger area in the quarry in which, because of the nature of the work being carried out there or for any other reason there is—

(i) risk of a person falling a distance likely to cause personal injury,

(ii) risk of a person being struck by a falling object likely to cause personal injury, or

(iii) a significant risk to the health and safety of persons; and

(c) where any person at work is authorised to enter a danger area, appropriate measures are taken to protect his health and safety.

Lighting

23.  The operator shall ensure that every part of a quarry in which a person is likely to be exposed to risks in the event of the failure of artificial lighting is provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity and where that is impractical persons at work in that place shall be provided with a personal lamp.

(1)

S.I. 1992/3139; amended by S.I. 1993/3074, 1994/2326, 1996/3039.