Duty to take ground control measures
32.—(1) The mine operator must ensure that such ground control measures are taken as are necessary to keep secure every place in the mine where persons work or pass.
(2) The duty in paragraph (1) to keep secure every place in the mine where persons work or pass is a duty to ensure security against any reasonably foreseeable risk to the health and safety of any person.
(3) Before any excavation is undertaken at a mine, the mine operator must carry out an assessment of the risks from ground movement.
(4) The mine operator must ensure that the assessment is—
(a)recorded; and
(b)reviewed and, where appropriate, revised, if there is reason to suspect that there has been a material change in the matters to which it relates.
(5) The mine operator must ensure that sufficient ground control measures are taken as soon as possible to address effectively the risks identified by the assessment.
(6) Paragraph (1) does not require the mine operator to take ground control measures with respect to a danger area.
(7) In the case of a coal mine, the duty in paragraph (5) is presumed to be met if the mine operator has implemented the standards in Schedule 1, provided that the assessment indicates that those standards are sufficient to address effectively the risks identified by that assessment.