Park City specialise in the practical application of legislation for businesses of all sizes.
The 2nd ATP adjusts the ‘rules’ for classifying and labelling preparations (mixtures) of chemicals based on the classification of the constituent substances and their concentrations in the preparation. It was due to enter into legal effect in EU Member States on 1 March 2007. For technical reasons we were unable to meet this deadline. HSE have recently completed a public consultation on proposals to implement the Directive through amendments to the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002. It is expected that the new regulations will come into force on 1 October 2008.
These regulations are intended to correct issues that have arisen since the new regulations on the manufacture and storage of explosives came into force in April 2005. They also take the opportunity to reduce the administrative burden resulting from explosives legislation by extending the maximum periods of validity of explosives certificates and storage licences. They will also revoke redundant and outdated local mining regulations and correct an omission in the Control of Noise at Work regulations.
We are consulting on these proposed regulations. They would remove several legislative form filling requirements that currently apply to most businesses operating from a factory, office or shop (and certain railway premises)in Great Britain. The regulations would introduce no new requirements. We are considering two areas:
The 1989 Regulations require employers to provide health and safety information, including the contact details for the local health and safety enforcing authority office and Employment Medical Advisory Service (EMAS) office, to their employees by displaying in the workplace the approved poster or giving each employee the approved leaflet. The amendments will allow HSE to approve and publish new posters and leaflets which do not require the addition or updating of enforcing authority and EMAS contact information by businesses displaying them.
The European Council and European Parliament have reached an informal agreement on the text of a Regulation to implement the United Nations Globally Harmonised System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) in the EU. It is anticipated that the Regulation will be formally adopted by the European Parliament in September 2008 and will enter into force around the end of 2008. The GHS aims to provide world-wide harmonised criteria for classifying substances and mixtures according to their health, environmental and physical hazards; and world-wide harmonised hazard communication elements, including requirements for labelling and data safety sheets. This will be a direct acting EU regulation which, once adopted, will apply in member states.
