Explanatory note
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations are applied to coal mines by regulation 2.
By regulation 3, the owner of a mine is prohibited from working the mine unless there are in force suitable written rules made by the owner (“owner;s operating rules”). The owner is required to notify the rules to the Health and Safety Executive. The owner is also required to ensure that the rules are brought to the attention of persons at work at the mine whom they affect and that operations at the mine are carried out in accordance with them.
The Health and Safety Executive is also empowered by that regulation to require the owner to modify any of the owner’s operating rules made by him in the interests of health or safety at the mine.
Under regulation 4, the topics covered by the rules are set out in the Schedule and are—
ventilation of blind ends;
mine fires; and
frictional ignition.
By regulation 5, copies of the owner’s operating rules are required to be kept and made available at the covered accomodation at the mine, and regulation 6 provides a defence in a case where the owner has failed to modify the rules when required to do so by the Health and Safety Executive. Section 157 of the Mines and Quarries Act 1954 (which provides a defence in legal proceedings and prosecutions in certain circumstances) is disapplied in relation to these Regulations by regulation 7.