The Road Works (Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2003

Made: 8th September 2003

Laid before the Scottish Parliament: 9th September 2003

Coming into force: 1st October 2003

The Scottish Ministers, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 134 and 163(1) of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991[^f00001] and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, hereby make the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and extent

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Road Works (Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on 1st October 2003.

• (2) These Regulations extend to Scotland only.

Interpretation

2

In these Regulations–

• “the Act” means the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991;

• “service pipe” and “service line” have the same meaning as in paragraph 7(3) of Schedule 6 to the Act;

• “statutory undertaker” means an undertaker who is entitled to carry out road works by virtue of a statutory right;

• “works” means road works involving the excavation or reinstatement of any part of a road;

• “year” means a year starting on 1st April and ending on 31st March.

Inspection fees

3

• (1) An undertaker executing road works shall pay to the road works authority a fee of £20.00 for each chargeable inspection of works carried out by the road works authority.

• (2) For the purposes of this regulation, a chargeable inspection of works is–

• (a) if the inspection is of works carried out by an undertaker who holds a permission under section 109 of the Act and whose number of reckonable units of inspection in the year in which the inspection is made is less than 100, every inspection of all or any phase of those works subject to a maximum of 30 inspections;

• (b) if the inspection is of works carried out by an undertaker who holds a permission under section 109 of the Act and whose number of reckonable units of inspection in the year in which the inspection is made is 100 or more, an inspection at random of not more than 10.5 per cent of each phase of works and not more than 30 per cent of that total number of reckonable units;

• (c) if the inspection is of works carried out by a statutory undertaker, an inspection at random of not more than 10.5 per cent of each phase of works and not more than 30 per cent of the total number of reckonable units of inspection in any year.

• (3) For the purposes of this regulation, a unit of inspection is–

• (a) a single excavation not exceeding 200 metres in length;

• (b) more than one and not more than 5 excavations and, in the case of works relating to service pipes and service lines, not more than 10 excavations:

Revocations

4

The Road Works (Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 1992[^f00002] and the Road Works (Inspection Fees) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2002[^f00003] are hereby revoked.

Signed

NICOL STEPHEN — A member of the Scottish Executive — 8th September 2003

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The Road Works (Inspection Fees) Regulations 1992 as amended by the Road Works (Inspection Fees) (Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 prescribe a scheme for the payment by undertakers for inspections of their works by roads authorities. These Regulations revoke the 1992 Regulations and the 2002 Regulations and re-enact those Regulations to give effect to the following changes:

The maximum number of “Chargeable units of inspection” in each phase of works has been increased from 6.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent of the total number of reckonable units of inspection in any year. This is consequent to the reduction in the number of phases from five to three. The maximum total number of chargeable units remains at 30 per cent of the total number of reckonable units of inspection in any year (regulation 3(2)).

“Unit of inspection”, in the case of clusters of not more than 5 excavations (or not more than 10 where the works relate to service pipes or lines) is redefined so that the previous requirement that in these cases, all the excavations are the subject of one notice of starting date, is replaced by two requirements, that all excavations are in the same road, and that they be part of the same works (regulation 3(3)).

The five “Phases of work” contained in the 1992 regulations are now replaced by three (regulation 3(4)).

“Estimated numbers of units of inspection” is replaced by “reckonable number of units of inspection”, being the average number of units of inspection for that undertaker during the three preceding years (regulation 3(5)). Regulation 3(6) and (7) makes provision for new undertakers to estimate the number of units of inspection they expect to generate for the first three years.

These Regulations provide for an increase to £20.00 (previously £15.50) in the fee payable by undertakers for inspections of their work by roads authorities.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1991 c. 22. The functions of the Secretary of State were transferred to the Scottish Ministers by virtue of section 53 of the Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46).

[^f00002]: S.I. 1992 1676.

[^f00003]: S.S.I. 2002/13.