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Hazardous Substance Strategy: Volume One

Foreword

Executive Summary

1 Introduction

2 Streamlining the Hazardous Substance Application Process

3 Improving how Controls are Communicated

4 Compliance and Enforcement

5 Regulatory Impact Statement - Data Collection

6 Having Your Say

Glossary

Executive Summary

This paper is the first of two volumes describing proposals to amend the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 (HSNO).

This first volume presents proposals that came out of the development of the government's Hazardous Substances Strategy and will be of interest to a general audience. The second volume largely covers material that was not part of the original strategy, and will be of interest to more specialist, technical audiences. Detailed guidance on which parts of the papers will be of interest to particular audiences is given in a short table below.

The Hazardous Substances Strategy aims to improve the workability of hazardous substances legislation and includes short- and long-term actions. With the short-term actions now complete, people will observe a significant improvement in the operation of hazardous substances legislation, starting with the long-delayed transfer of single-component dangerous goods on 1 April 2004.

This paper elaborates on the proposals identified in the strategy to be implemented in the longer term. After we have received your feedback, it will be incorporated into proposals that we will be put to ministers. The resultant bill will probably be introduced into Parliament before the end of 2004.

We seek your feedback on several proposals to improve HSNO processes, and thereby reduce compliance costs and improve the protection of public health, safety and the environment. Specifically, this paper includes proposals to:

• streamline the hazardous substance application process, particularly for lower-risk substances
• improve how hazardous substance controls are communicated
• improve the compliance and enforcement regime.

The hazardous substance application process is seen as overly complicated, particularly for substances used in a low-risk manner, creating a need for a new pathway to simplify and speed up the application process. We propose the development of a group standard pathway to enable the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) to set up groups of substances and apply a single set of controls to all the substances in that group, reducing the number of approvals that will be required and streamlining the application pathway.

The purpose of the HSNO Act (protecting the environment and the health and safety of people and communities) is achieved by the application of controls. It is these controls on packaging, labelling and storage, for example, that reduce the likelihood of any adverse event, and, should one occur, reduce the potential damage. Industry has indicated that the controls would be more user friendly if they were organised according to the means by which they may be implemented (eg, all the requirements for labels in one place), rather than the function they perform (eg, identification, containment, managing emergencies). Industry has also indicated that, for smaller businesses, if controls were simplified and more prescriptive rather than being performance based they would be easier to comply with.

We propose to enable ERMA to create standard sets of controls that would still allow better-resourced industry to take advantage of the performance-based nature of the regulations, but that would simplify compliance for those industries that do not have the resources to interpret the control regulations. The proposal would also reduce the number of sets of controls being used, making it easier for enforcement agencies to enforce the HSNO requirements and to help people to comply.

The Hazardous Substances Strategy identified compliance monitoring and enforcement as a high priority. Section 97 of the HSNO lists enforcement agencies together with the places or subject areas each is responsible for. This approach differs from what existed previously and relies on a high level of co-operation between various agencies. There have been teething problems, and the loss of enforcement capacity within territorial authorities has been a particular concern. In response to this situation, the paper proposes that:

• the current role of territorial authorities should be clarified
• regional councils should have an HSNO enforcement role
• there is a need to formalise emergency response planning.

What parts will interest you

The following chapters may be of particular interest to you or your organisation.