Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996

UK Statutory Instrument 1996 No. 551 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created

0recorded in force

0revoked

Made: 4 March 1996
In force from: 1 April 1996
Extent: Not stated
Subject: Energy, communications, water and utilities
Made under: Schedule 3 to, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations provide for the preparation and acceptance of safety cases in respect of the conveyance of gas in a network and impose requirements in respect of gas escapes and the composition and pressure of gas. Regulation 2 defines a “safety case” as a document containing the particulars specified in the Schedule referred to in the provision of the Regulations under which the safety case is prepared. Schedules 1 and 2 specify those particulars.Regulation 2 also defines a “network” as a connected network of pipes used for the conveyance of gas from a gas processing facility, a storage facility or an interconnector except a network used exclusively for supplying gas to non-domestic premises. Regulation 2(3) and (4) excepts specified pipes from a network. Regulation 3 prohibits a person from conveying gas in a network unless he has prepared a safety case which has been accepted by the Health and Safety Executive (“the Executive”) and, where others convey gas in the network, a person (referred to in the Regulations as a “network emergency co-ordinator”) has prepared a safety case which has been similarly accepted. Regulation 4 requires a safety case to be revised as often as may be appropriate. A revision which renders the safety case materially different from the last version may not be made unless the Executive has accepted the revision. Regulation 4 also requires a safety case to be revised at least every 3 years. Regulation 5 requires that any procedures or arrangements described in a safety case are followed and provides for specified defences for contravention of the requirement. Regulation 6 imposes requirements on specified persons to co-operate with a person conveying gas in a network and with a network emergency co-ordinator to enable them to comply with the provisions of the Regulations.Regulation 6 also empowers a person conveying gas in a network to direct persons not to consume gas where this is necessary to prevent a “supply emergency” as defined in regulation 2(1). It also requires a person conveying gas to provide, on request to persons proposing to carry out work to gas fittings, information about operating pressures of the gas at the outlet of a service pipe. Regulation 7 requires British Gas p.l.c. to provide a continuously manned telephone service for receiving reports of gas escapes, and requires such reports to be passed on to the persons made responsible under the Regulation for preventing the escapes. The Regulation also imposes specified duties on occupiers of premises and others with respect to gas escapes. The Regulation imposes specified duties with respect to the investigation of incidents on persons conveying or supplying gas. Regulation 8 and Schedule 3 imposes requirements with respect to the characteristics and testing of gas. Regulation 9 imposes requirements with respect to the making and keeping of documents. Regulation 10 provides transitional provisions. Regulation 11 provides for the granting of exemptions from the Regulations by the Executive in certain circumstances. Regulation 12 repeals section 16 of, and paragraphs 20 and 21 of Schedule 2B to, the Gas Act 1986. It also revokes the Gas Quality Regulations 1972 and amends regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994. It revokes the Gas Quality Regulations 1983 as from 31st October 1996. A copy of the compliance cost assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, Safety Policy Division Branch E, Room 224, Magdalen House, Trinity Road, Bootle, Merseyside L20 3QZ. A copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament.

Offences created by this instrument

Contravention of Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 the instrument as a whole · Status not determined · Strict liability

What Parliament said about it

Contributions, debates and written statements mentioning this instrument by name. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

UK Hydrogen Economy Commons · Westminster Hall · 17 December 2020 · Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McDonagh. Like everybody else, I congratulate the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Alexander Stafford) on bringing forward this important debate—his second debate. He has a huge interest in the subject and spoke very well on it. Believe it or not, I agree with pretty much everything he said. Because of time constraints, I will not pay tribute to everybody who has spoken, except to say that it has been a very good debate. I agree with pretty much all the contributions. The hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) said it is not a competition,…
Impact of the Gas Explosion in Galpin’s Road, Pollards Hill Commons · Commons Chamber · 21 October 2022 · The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Lee Rowley)
The convention in debates such as this is to start by congratulating an hon. Member on securing the debate, but congratulations absolutely do not feel right at all. I am incredibly sorry —incredibly sorry—that the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) has had to bring this debate to the House today and for the awful and tragic events that have happened to her and her community. I thank everybody present for their time and their willingness to come to this place today. On behalf of the Government, let me say how sorry I am for all of the challenges that the hon. Lady and the…
Energy Bill [HL] Lords · Grand Committee · 16 January 2023 · Lord Callanan (Con)
The decision was taken by a different department, by DLUHC, in a quasi-judicial manner. It is likely to be the subject of judicial proceedings, so I cannot comment in detail on that decision, as the noble Lord will understand. I am sure we will be having this debate lots of times in future. I move on to the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Blake. The reasons for the Secretary of State’s decision are set out in full in his published letter on GOV.UK, which takes into account matters like the demand for coal, climate change and the impact on the local economy. To reiterate the point of…
Energy Bill [HL] Lords · Grand Committee · 16 January 2023 · Lord Moylan (Con)
I am grateful for that clarification. If the noble Lord is saying that the time has gone, that, it seems to me, is essentially a commercial and practical judgment. It may be right—I do not run a fracking company; I know very little in practice about fracking. It is possible that the time has gone in commercial terms, and that it might not be a sensible thing to do in current circumstances. None of that is grounds for ruling it out as a matter of statute and prohibiting it. It is complete nonsense to suggest doing that. We will leave fracking to one side for the moment. I turn to Amendment…

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

Check the source

This instrument on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text, including amendments made since
Other instruments from 1996