Construction (General Provisions) Regulations, 1961
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1961/1580 |
| Year | 1961 |
1961 No. 1580
FACTORIES
The Construction (General Provisions) Regulations, 196115thAugust 1961
22ndAugust 1961
1stMarch 1962
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
Reg
PART I — Application and Interpretation 1-4
PART II — Supervision of Safe Conduct of Work 5-6
PART III — Safety of Working Places and Means of Access 7
PART IV — Excavations, Shafts and Tunnels 8-14
PART V — Cofferdams and Caissons 15-18
PART VI — Explosives 19
PART VII — Dangerous or Unhealthy Atmospheres 20-22
PART VIII — Work on or adjacent to Water 23-24
PART IX — Transport 25-37
PART X — Demolition 38-41
PART XI — Miscellaneous 42-56
PART XII — Offences under section 17 of the Principal Act 57
SCHEDULE — Processes to which Regulation 52 applies
REGULATIONS
The Minister of Labour by virtue of the powers conferred on him by sections 17, 46 and 60 of the Factories Act, 1937(a), section 8 of the Factories Act, 1948(b), and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the special Regulations set out in Parts I to XI hereof and the Regulation set out in Part XII hereof, after publishing, pursuant to the Second Schedule to the said Act of 1937, notice of the proposal to make the said special Regulations and after the holding of an inquiry under that Schedule into objections made to the draft special Regulations:—
PART I
APPLICATION AND INTERPRETATION
Citation, commencement and revocation
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Construction (General Provisions) Regulations, 1961, and shall come into operation on the first day of March, 1962.
(2) Regulations 5 and 75 to 79 and 85 to 98 and 100 of the Building (Safety, Health and Welfare) Regulations, 1948(c), and the Building (Safety, Health and Welfare) Amendment Regulations, 1952(d), are hereby revoked.
(a) 1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6. c. 67.
(c) S.I. 1948/1145 (Rev. VII, p. 191: 1948 I, p. 953).
(d) S.I. 1952/1584 (1952 I, p. 985).
Application of Regulations
2.—(1) These Regulations apply—
(a) to building operations; and
(b) to works of engineering construction,
undertaken by way of trade or business, or for the purpose of any industrial or commercial undertaking, or by or on behalf of the Crown or any municipal or other public authority, and to any line or siding which is used in connection therewith and for the purposes thereof and is not part of a railway or tramway.
(2) The Chief Inspector may (subject to such conditions, if any, as may be specified therein) by certificate in writing (which he may in his discretion revoke at any time) exempt from all or any of the requirements of these Regulations—
(a) any particular plant or equipment or any class or description of plant or equipment; or
(b) any particular work or any class or description of work;
if he is satisfied that the requirements in respect of which the exemption is granted are not necessary for the protection of persons employed or are not reasonably practicable.
Obligations under Regulations
3.—(1) It shall be the duty of every contractor, and every employer of workmen, who is undertaking any of the operations or works to which these Regulations apply—
(a) to comply with such of the requirements of the following Regulations as affect him or any workman employed by him, that is to say, Regulations 7 to 11, 13, 15 to 17, 20, 21, 23 to 25, 35, 36, 45, 46 (1), 47 to 49, 52 and 55:
Provided that the requirements of the said Regulations shall be deemed not to affect any workman if and so long as his presence in any place is not in the course of performing any work on behalf of his employer and is not expressly or impliedly authorised or permitted by his employer; and
(b) to comply with such of the requirements of Regulations 12, 14, 18, 19, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 46 (2), 50, 51, 54 and 56 as relate to any work, act or operation performed or about to be performed by any such contractor or employer of workmen,
and it shall be the duty of every contractor, and every employer of workmen, who erects or alters any scaffold to comply with such of the requirements of these Regulations as relate to the erection or alteration of scaffolds having regard to the purpose or purposes for which the scaffold is designed at the time of erection or alteration; and of every contractor, and every employer of workmen, who erects, installs, works or uses any plant or equipment to which any of the provisions of Regulations 22, 26 to 29, 31 to 34, 37, 42, 43 and 53 applies, to erect, install, work or use any such plant or equipment in a manner which complies with those provisions.
(2) It shall be the duty of every person employed to comply with the requirements of such of these Regulations as relate to the performance of or the refraining from an act by him and to co-operate in carrying out these Regulations and if he discovers any defect in the plant or equipment to report such defect without unreasonable delay to his employer or foreman, or to a person appointed by the employer under Part II of these Regulations.
Interpretation
4.—(1) The Interpretation Act, 1889(a), shall apply to the interpretation of these Regulations as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament, and as if these Regulations and the Regulations hereby revoked were Acts of Parliament.
(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them—
"locomotive" in Part IX of these Regulations means any self-propelled wheeled vehicle used on a line of rails for the movement of trucks or wagons;
"plant or equipment" includes any plant, equipment, gear, machinery, apparatus or appliance, or any part thereof;
"the principal Act" means the Factories Act, 1937, as amended by or under any other Act;
"scaffold" means any temporarily provided structure on or from which persons perform work in connection with operations or works to which these Regulations apply, and any temporarily provided structure which enables persons to obtain access to or which enables materials to be taken to any place at which such work is performed, and includes any working platform, working stage, gangway, run, ladder or step-ladder (other than an independent ladder or step-ladder which does not form part of such a structure) together with any guard-rail, toe-board or other safeguards and all fixings, but does not include a lifting appliance or a structure used merely to support such an appliance or to support other plant or equipment;
"truck" or "wagon" in Part IX of these Regulations means, respectively, a truck or wagon used on a line of rails.
PART II
SUPERVISION OF SAFE CONDUCT OF WORK
Appointment of safety supervisors
5.—(1) Every contractor, and every employer of workmen, who undertakes operations or works to which these Regulations apply and who normally employs more than twenty persons thereon at any one time (whether or not all those persons are employed on the same site or are all at work at any one time) shall specifically appoint in writing one or more persons experienced in such operations or works and suitably qualified for the purpose to be specially charged with the duties—
(a) of advising the contractor or employer as to the observance of the requirements for the safety or protection of persons employed imposed by or under the Factories Acts, 1937 to 1959, or the Lead Paint (Protection against Poisoning) Act, 1926(b), and as to other safety matters; and
(b) of exercising a general supervision of the observance of the aforesaid requirements and of promoting the safe conduct of the work generally.
(2) The name of every person so appointed shall be entered by the contractor or employer appointing him on the copy or abstract either of these Regulations or of the Factories Acts, 1937 to 1959, required to be posted up in accordance with sections 114 or 115 and 107 or 108 of the Factories Act, 1937.
(a) 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63.
Other duties and joint appointments of safety supervisors
6.—(1) The duties assigned to any person appointed under the preceding Regulation by the contractor or employer appointing him, including any duties other than those mentioned in that Regulation, shall not be such as to prevent that person from discharging with reasonable efficiency the duties assigned to him under that Regulation.
(2) Nothing in these Regulations shall be construed as preventing the same person or persons being appointed for a group of sites or as preventing two or more contractors or employers from jointly appointing the same person or persons.
PART III
SAFETY OF WORKING PLACES AND MEANS OF ACCESS
Provision of scaffolds and means of access
7.—(1) Sufficient safe means of access and egress shall so far as is reasonably practicable be provided and maintained to and from every place at which any person has at any time to work and every such place shall so far as is reasonably practicable be made and kept safe for any person working there.
(2) Where work cannot safely be done on or from the ground or from part of a building, or other permanent structure there shall be provided and maintained either scaffolds or where appropriate ladders or other means of support, each of which shall be suitable and sufficient for the purpose.
PART IV
EXCAVATIONS, SHAFTS AND TUNNELS
Supply and use of timber
8.—(1) An adequate supply of timber of suitable quality or other suitable support shall where necessary be provided and used to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable and as early as is practicable in the course of the work, danger to any person employed from a fall or dislodgement of earth, rock or other material forming a side or the roof of or adjacent to any excavation, shaft, earthwork or tunnel:
Provided that this Regulation shall not apply—
(a) to any excavation, shaft or earthwork where, having regard to the nature and slope of the sides of the excavation, shaft or earthwork and other circumstances, no fall or dislodgement of earth or other material so as...
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