HSE ISSUES WARNING TO RECREATIONAL DIVE COMPANIES FOLLOWING PROSECUTION OF PARTNER

HSE press release E108:03 - 24 June 2003

Improvement Notices must be obeyed, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned recreational dive companies following the prosecution of a partner at Mike's Waterfront Warehouse at London Colney, Hertfordshire.

Managing partner Mr Andrew Abery was fined £2,000 with £3401.70 costs on 28 May 2003 at St Alban's Magistrates for breaching section 33 (1) (g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 by failing to comply with an Improvement Notice.

The Improvement Notice, served by an HSE diving inspector in April 2002 required the partners of Mike's Waterfront Warehouse to comply with requirements of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 (DWR) by 31 May 2002. The deadline was subsequently extended by HSE to August 2002, but was still not complied with.

The Notice detailed the following requirements for each diving operation taking place:

• the appointment of a diving supervisor,
• preparing a diving project plan,
• preparing a risk assessment and
• preparing emergency procedures.

After the hearing Gordon Clark of HSE's Central Diving Inspection Team said: "I hope that this case will send a clear message to recreational diving contractors that proper compliance with the Regulations is key to ensuring a safe diving operation takes place. This is particularly important where members of the public are undergoing instruction in recreational diving.

"Diving is a high hazard activity, which, if conducted properly can be undertaken with low risk. An Improvement Notice is one of the tools HSE inspectors have available to ensure that the Regulations are complied with. When Notices are not complied with inspectors are left with no option but to prosecute."

Notes to editors

1. The Diving at Work Regulations 1997 (DWR), together with a series of five associated Approved Codes of Practice (ACoPs) seek to control the hazards associated with diving at work. For more information visit www.hse.gov.uk/hid/osd/diving/acop.htm.

2. The DWR and ACoPs apply to all dives in British waters where one or more divers are at work (including recreational instructors), whether employed or self-employed. They impose duties on everyone involved in a project, from the client to individual divers doing the work, to take measures to ensure the health and safety of those taking part.

3. Inspectors encountering unsatisfactorily planned and/or conducted diving projects have the powers to take the following action:

• Serve an Improvement Notice, which requires particular aspects of the project to be amended; or
• Serve a Prohibition Notice, which means specified activities must stop until remedial action is taken to HSE's satisfaction.

In either case, failure to comply with a Notice is a prosecutable offence. HSE can also take prosecutions if they find serious breaches of the Regulations or other provisions of health and safety law (except in Scotland, where all criminal prosecutions are taken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service).

4. HSE's diving inspection teams are based in Plymouth, Norwich and Aberdeen.

General advice on diving at work can be found on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/hid/osd/diving/index.htm

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