• Previously approved LPG installations 
• Dates for certification of class 6 & 8 locations
• Change in advice for compliance certificates dates
• Earthing and bonding of storage cabinets and cages  
• Establishing and maintaining hazardous areas for class 2.1.1, 2.1.2 and 3.1 substances 
• Conditions on compliance certificates
• Conditional location compliance certificates 
• Consulting FENZ on ERPs 
• FENZ information on ERPs
• New LPG guidance
• Controlled substance licence applications
• Sign up for our hazardous substances newsletter

• The site was commissioned prior to 1 April 2004, and
• The separation distance is greater than 50% of the prescribed separation distance, and 
• The intervening wall (stand-alone wall or building wall) is 180/180/180 FRR or better, and
• The protected place which the wall is providing a reduced separation to is within the site – that is, the separation distance does not extend beyond the site boundary. 

The requirement to establish a hazardous substance location for certain class 6 & 8 substances comes into effect on 1 June 2019 under regulation 13.34 of the HS Regulations and a location compliance certificate can be issued from that date.

Regulation 13.38 of the HS Regulations requires that a business holds a compliance certificate verifying that they comply with the requirements of regulation 13.34. This regulation comes into effect on 1 December 2019. 

This means compliance certifiers have a 6 month window to visit affected businesses, assess their site to determine whether they comply with the regulatory requirements and issue them with a compliance certificate if they do comply.

Certifiers may wish to start communicating and engaging with relevant businesses to ensure they understand what this means and what they have to do to prepare. 

WorkSafe is including information about these requirements in the Hazardous Substance newsletters and on the website.

For those compliance certifiers who have completed their training on class 6 & 8s, please send us your application as soon as possible. 

We are updating our advice on date requirements for compliance certificates. 

Under the Interpretation Act 1999 section 35, when calculating a period of time beginning ‘from’ the date of a certain event, the date the event occurred is not counted.

Therefore when calculating an expiry date from a date of issue, the date of issue (or date it comes into force) is not included. 

For example, a location compliance certificate issued for 12 months from 3 August 2018 would have an expiry date of 3 August 2019.

The register of compliance certificates is being updated to reflect this new understanding. Please update your own business systems as well. 

• AS 1940 cabinets storing 3.1 substances 
• cages storing cylinders of LPG, found at service stations

• Earthing is to let electricity ‘escape’ from a system if the system becomes live, by connecting the system to the ground. It protects from electric shocks and discharges.
• Bonding is intentionally connecting metallic items not designed to carry electricity. The items need to be ‘bonded’ – joined – in order to give them the same potential and avoid the risk of electric shocks and discharges.

As discussed at the recent compliance certifier workshops, regulation 10.6 of the HS Regulations requires all hazardous substance locations with class 2.1.1, 2.1.2 or 3.1 substances to have hazardous areas established in accordance with the standard AS/NZS 60079.10.1:2009 - Classification of areas - Explosive gas atmospheres. 

Under regulation 10.7 if any electrical installation or any electrical appliance within the scope of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 is located within a hazardous area there are controls that apply to those installations and appliances.

In regulation 10.26(4)(c), the PCBU with management or control of a hazardous substance location must ensure that any hazardous area required is established and maintained. 

Under regulation 10.34(1)(d) the compliance certifier must verify compliance with regulation 10.6; that hazardous areas have been established. A compliant site plan with this information should be sighted by the certifier, and a copy kept for verification purposes. 

Under regulation 10.34(1)(i) the compliance certifier must verify compliance with regulation 10.26(4); that the hazardous area is established and maintained and the extent of the area is documented.

For new installations an electrical certificate of compliance (COC) should be available and for older installations a periodic assessment record of assessment (ROA) or certificate of verification (COV) should be available. These will assist verification of compliance. A periodic assessment will have other documentation with it, and the certifier should use this to assess that the hazardous area is being maintained. Again, evidence of relevant electrical paperwork should be kept by the certifier. 

• Unless surrendered or revoked, this certificate remains valid until date and may be renewed thereafter by an authorised certifier;
• This certificate must be produced at the request of an enforcement officer appointed under the HSNO Act 1996.

A conditional location compliance certificate for a hazardous substance location can only be issued once, and a site cannot have a second ‘follow up’ conditional certificate. Issuing a second certificate undermines the purpose of the HS Regulations and is contrary to regulation 6.24.

Under this regulation, a compliance certifier may issue a conditional compliance certificate only if they are satisfied the failure to meet a relevant requirement is minor. The conditional compliance certificate must specify the date by which the relevant requirement must be met and this date must be no more than 3 months after the date the certificate was issued. After this date, the conditional compliance certificate is to be treated either as a non-conditional compliance certificate (if the requirements have been met) or it expires (if the relevant requirement is not met).

The purpose of regulation 6.24 is to provide hazardous substance locations that fail to meet a minor relevant requirement time to rectify the failure. However, if the time required to rectify the failure is more than 3 months, then a conditional compliance certificate cannot be issued. Similarly, if a business fails to rectify the failing within the time specified the conditional compliance certificate expires.

It should be noted that conditional certificates are only applicable to the certification of hazardous substance locations and must not be used for any other types of certificates, e.g. stationary container systems, pyrotechnic displays. 

As discussed at the recent compliance certifier workshops, under regulations 5.9-5.11 of the HS Regulations, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) must be consulted on any emergency response plan (ERP) which has a dependency on FENZ in the plan.

Regulation 5.9 states that a business which is required to have an ERP must ensure that all equipment and facilities described in the ERP and all responsible people described in the ERP who are on duty, are available to reach the location within the times specified in the plan.

If the business depends on FENZ in their ERP, the business will need to confirm information in the ERP is accurate by consulting with FENZ.

Additionally under regulation 5.10, a business which is required to have an ERP for a workplace must ensure that the plan is available to every emergency service provider identified in the plan.

Regulation 5.11 says that FENZ may review ERPs which means that it is at their discretion. FENZ would review and assess whether the role proposed for FENZ is achievable and consistent with their policies. 

See article below for how businesses provide their ERP to FENZ.

• An Emergency Response Plan Preparation Guide which sets out what FENZ will look for when reviewing ERPs - this help your clients in developing their ERPs and ensure that the ERPs cover all the information that is relevant to FENZ
• A new process for submitting plans for consultation or review electronically via the Fire Information Unit – this will make sure that all plans are directed to the relevant Fire Area Manager for review.

We have recently published new LPG guidance on our website.

• LPG for industry
• LPG in hospitality
• Delivering LPG cylinders - joint guidance developed by EPA and WorkSafe for gas suppliers.

Earlier EPA guidance for industry on threshold triggers has been updated to reflect the HS Regulations.

In June we sent an email out to compliance certifiers involved with controlled substance licence (CSL) applications, advising them of changes in the processing time for applications. 

Applicants need to be made aware of the changes to the Police Vetting Service that is part of the process to assess an applicant’s status as a fit and proper person. 

NZ Police reassessed the way they are treating requests for information. Vetting checks now take up to 20 working days from the date we submit the request to the NZ Police. This is in addition to the 20 working days processing time a CSL application takes for us.

All applicants for a CSL need to understand that it may take up to 40 working days before they receive a decision on their application. This is from the date a complete application is submitted to us. 

Applicants should ensure that they submit their application as early as possible taking the processing time into account. This is particularly important for existing CSL holders whose licence is close to expiry, so that they can ensure licence continuity. 

We recommend anyone in this situation submits their application at least 2 months before the expiry date. 

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