Progress with the iron mains replacement programme 2006 - 2007

1  Under the Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996, regulation 13A [PDF 90KB], HSE approved annual replacement programmes for the year April 2006 to end March 2007 for the Distribution Networks (DNs) shown in Table 1. The progress in meeting the national and individual network targets is shown.

2  Nationally 3561.9 km of iron mains were decommissioned against an annual approved target of 3513.6 km - an extra 48.3 km. All of the networks met or exceeded their target except for Southern Gas Networks plc who recorded a minor shortfall of 3.3 km against a target of 540 km (<1% shortfall). This shortfall will be addressed in the 2007 - 8 approved programme.

3  As part of its monitoring strategy and 5 year intervention plans for the DNs, HSE continues to carry out mains replacement audits to check that mains are decommissioned in accordance with the policies and procedures in the DNs' Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 safety cases.

4  HSE has approved programmes for the Distribution Networks for the period April 2007 to end March 2008.

Table 1 - Mains replacement performance 2006 - 2007 by Distribution Networks