December news letter

Dear Simplifi User,

Here is our newsletter for December 2019.  May we wish you a very happy Christmas and everything of the best in 2020.  This month, perhaps as a result of the general election and the time of the year, we have very little report.  It would therefore seem an opportune moment to send out our review of legislation brought about Brexit.

New legislation

Plant Health

SR 2019/230. The Plant Health (Official Controls and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019. Comes into force 14^th December.  These Regulations give effect to Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 on protective measures against pests of plants, and Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products

The Regulations also implement in relation to Northern Ireland

(a)Council Directive 69/464/EEC on control of Potato Wart Disease

(b)Council Directive 93/85/EEC on the control of potato ring rot

(c)Council Directive 98/57/EC on the control of Ralstonia and

(d)Council Directive 2007/33/EC on the control of potato cyst nematodes

Amending legislation

Environmental Protection

SR 2019/223.  The Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019.  Comes into force 6^th Jan 2020.  These Regulations amend the Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) Regulations Northern Ireland 2003 (SR 2003/167)

Guidance

 Nothing of relevance

EU Legislation

Nothing of relevance

Consultations

 Nothing of relevance

Prosecutions of note.

A County Durham plastic packaging manufacturer has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £1,061 costs after an accident resulted in an employee suffering multiple fractures to their pelvis and legs.  While reversing a forklift truck, it caught a stacked bulk bag (FIBC) tearing it and causing it to spill its contents. The employee attempted to repair the tear but a FIBC higher in the stack, weighing about 1 tonne, fell and struck the employee. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the FIBCs were stacked in an unsafe manner at a height of approximately 2.2 metres.

A water and wastewater company has been fined £300,000 and instructed to pay costs of £16,419 following a breach of the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997.   Three workers were carried down a sewer by a torrent of water resulting from the collapse of a 150-year-old penstock (gate).  An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that while the company had planned individual work activities, it failed to properly coordinate these as the permission and authorisation system was fragmented. The company had no effective means of collating, comparing and adapting to the impact of multiple work activities.  While the workers suffered only minor physical injuries, they have required treatment for long-term traumatic stress