The Ionising Radiations Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

(This note is not part of the Order)

These regulations revoke and supersede the Ionising Radiations Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.

The Regulations impose duties on employers to protect employees and other persons against ionising radiation arising from work with radioactive substances and other sources of ionising radiation. The regulations also impose certain duties on employees.

The Regulations implement in part as respects Northern Ireland provisions of Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom (OJ No L13, 17.1.2014, p 1) laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation, and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom.

The Regulations are divided into seven Parts.

The Regulations define the terms used in and the scope of application of the Regulations. For the purposes of the Regulations, an employer includes a self-employed person and an employee includes a self-employed person and a trainee.

Generally, the Regulations apply to any practice (as defined, and which encompasses various types of work), and to any other work carried out in an atmosphere of radon above a particular concentration. In the Regulations, work with ionising radiation means work to which the Regulations apply.

Regulation 5 requires certain work with ionising radiation to be notified to the Executive. The work which requires notification is a residual category of work; amongst other exclusions, work which arises from practices which require registration under regulation 6 or require a consent under regulation 7 do not require notification.

Regulation 6 requires all practices to be registered with the Executive other than those excluded from registration by regulation 6(2). Amongst other exclusions, practices consisting of work which is excluded from notification because the work falls within Schedule 1, are excluded from registration. Practices which require a consent under regulation 7, and practices which involve moderate amounts of radioactive material (not exceeding 1,000kg) where the activity concentration value of that material is less than the values in column 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 7, are also excluded from registration.

Regulation 7 requires an employer to obtain a consent from the Executive to carry out certain practices.

Regulations 8 to 13—

require employers to make a prior assessment of the risks arising from their work with ionising radiation, to make an assessment of the hazards likely to arise from that work and to prevent and limit the consequences of identifiable radiation accidents;

require employers to take all reasonable steps to restrict as far as is reasonably practicable the extent to which employees and other persons are exposed to ionising radiation;

require respiratory protective equipment used in work with ionising radiation to conform with agreed standards and require all personal protective equipment and other controls to be regularly examined and properly maintained;

impose limits (specified in Schedule 3) on the doses of ionising radiation which employees and other persons may receive;

require in certain circumstances the preparation of contingency plans for radiation accidents which are reasonably foreseeable.

The Regulations require that employers consult radiation protection advisers in respect of matters specified in Schedule 4 and that employers ensure that adequate information, instruction and training is given to employees and other persons. Employers are required to co-operate by exchanging information to enable compliance by others with requirements to limit the exposure of employees to ionising radiation.

provide that areas in which persons need to follow special procedures to restrict exposure or in which persons are likely to receive more than specified doses of ionising radiation be designated as controlled or supervised areas;

restrict entry into controlled areas to specified persons and circumstances;