The Offshore Chemicals Regulations 2002

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations—

• “address”, in relation to electronic communications, includes any number or address used for the purposes of such communications;

• “business day” means any day, except a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a day which is a bank holiday in any part of the United Kingdom by virtue of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(1);

• “consultation parties” means, having regard to the part of the relevant area to which any permit would relate—

  (a)

  the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science;

  (b)

  the Fisheries Research Services,

  together with any Contracting State which the Secretary of State considers may be affected by the use or discharge of any offshore chemical to which an application under these Regulations relates;

• “Contracting State” means a State which the Secretary of State considers to be a contracting party to the Convention;

• “Convention” means the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic 1992(2);

• “discharge” means the operational release of offshore chemicals, or their degradation and transformation products, from an offshore installation into the relevant area;

• “electronic communication” has the same meaning as in the Electronic Communications Act 2000(3);

• “the Gazettes” means the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes;

• “notice” means notice in writing;

• “offshore activities” means any activities in respect of which the Secretary of State exercises functions under the Petroleum Act 1998(4), being activities carried out in the relevant area;

• “offshore chemical” means any chemical, whether comprising a substance or a preparation, intentionally used in connection with offshore activities;

• “offshore installation” means any structure or other thing (including any floating production storage and off-loading system or floating storage unit, but not including a ship) in the relevant area which is used for the purposes of, or in connection with, offshore activities;

• “operator” means any person who operates an offshore installation;

• “permit” means an authorisation granted by the Secretary of State pursuant to these Regulations to use or discharge any offshore chemical in the relevant area;

• “permit application” means an application for a permit, being an application which satisfies the requirements of regulation 6(1) and “permit applicant” shall be construed accordingly;

• “pipeline” has the same meaning as in section 26 of the Petroleum Act 1998;

• “pollution” means the introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the relevant area which results, or is likely to result, in hazards to human health, harm to living resources and marine ecosystems, damage to amenities or interference with other legitimate uses of the sea;

• “preparation” means a mixture or solution composed of two or more substances;

• “prescribed date” means the date after the day on which the period of three months commencing on the day on which these Regulations come into force expires, save that when a permit application is made before that date it means—

  (a)

  the date on which the permit is granted, whether in pursuance of the application or, on an appeal under regulation 17, of an order of the court; or

  (b)

  where a permit is refused and the permit applicant appeals under regulation 17, the date on which the court upholds that refusal; or

  (c)

  the date after the day on which the period provided for under regulation 17(6) expires,

  as the case may be;

• “relevant area” means that area (together with places above and below it) comprising—

  (a)

  those parts of the sea adjacent to England and Wales from the low water mark to the landward baseline of the United Kingdom territorial sea;

  (b)

  the United Kingdom territorial sea apart from those areas comprised in Scottish controlled waters; and

  (c)

  those areas of sea in any area for the time being designated under section 1(7) of the Continental Shelf Act 1964(5);

• “relevant project” has the same meaning as in the Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1999(6);

• “Scottish controlled waters” means any waters which are controlled waters within the meaning of section 30A(1) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974(7);

• “substance” means a chemical element or compound, in the natural state or obtained by any production process, including any additive necessary to preserve the stability of the product or any impurity deriving from the process used, but excluding any solvent which may be separated without affecting the stability of the substance or changing its composition;

• “substantial change” means a change in the type, quantity, frequency or location of the use or discharge of an offshore chemical which may have significant negative effects on people or the environment;

• “use”, in relation to offshore chemicals, means any application in connection with offshore activities that might result in a discharge.

(1)

1971 c. 80.

(2)

Cm 2265: Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Made at Paris, 22nd September 1992.

(3)

2000 c. 7.

(4)

1998 c. 17.

(5)

1964 c. 29.

(6)

S.I. 1999/360.

(7)

1974 c. 40. The provisions of section 30A(1) were inserted into the 1974 Act by section 169 of, and Schedule 23 to, the Water Act 1989 (1989 c. 15).