New health and safety regulations regarding explosives are set to come into force next month – October 2014.
The Explosives Regulations 2014 (ER 2014) and the Acetylene Safety (England and Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2014 (ASR 2014) come as a result of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) reviewing the existing health and safety explosive legislation.
The HSE review found that the existing law needed clarification and modernisation - the complicated legal duties owed to various different bodies, and the differing definitions at UK and International law, together produced a very complex picture. The HSE therefore concluded that a broader, more coherent framework would be far more effective.