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The Radioactive Contaminated Land (Enabling Powers) (England) Regulations 2005

Type Statutory-Instrument
Publication 2005-12-14
State In force
Department King's Printer of Acts of Parliament
Source legislation.gov.uk
articles Not indexed
Reform history JSON API PDF

Made: 14th December 2005

Laid before Parliament: 19th December 2005

Coming into force: 20th January 2006

The Secretary of State makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred on her by sections 78A(9) and 78YC of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 :

Citation, commencement, application and interpretation

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Extension and modification of Part 2A

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For the purposes of the exercise by the Secretary of State of any power conferred by Part 2A to make regulations or orders, give directions or issue guidance in relation to relevant harm, Part 2A shall apply in relation to such harm, and shall have effect with the modifications made by Schedule 1 for the purpose of dealing with such harm.

Interpretation of modifications

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SCHEDULE 1 — Modification of Part 2A

Section 78A: Preliminary

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(2) “Contaminated land” is any land which appears to the local authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land, that— (a) harm is being caused; or (b) there is a significant possibility of harm being caused; and in determining whether any land appears to be such land, a local authority shall, subject to subsection (5) below, act in accordance with guidance issued by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 78YA below with respect to the manner in which that determination is to be made.

(4) “Harm” means lasting exposure to any person resulting from the after-effects of an emergency, past practice or past work activity (except in section 78E(4A)(a)).

(5) The questions— (a) whether harm is being caused; and (b) whether the possibility of harm being caused is “significant”; shall be determined in accordance with guidance issued for the purpose by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 78YA below.

(6) Without prejudice to the guidance that may be issued under subsection (5) above— (a) guidance under paragraph (a) of that subsection may make provision for different degrees and descriptions of harm; (b) guidance under paragraph (b) of that subsection may make provision for different degrees of possibility to be regarded as “significant” (or as not being “significant”) in relation to different descriptions of harm.

(7) “Remediation” means— (a) the doing of anything for the purpose of assessing the condition of— (i) the contaminated land in question; or (ii) any land adjoining or adjacent to that land; (b) the doing of any works, the carrying out of any operations or the taking of any steps in relation to any such land for the purpose— (i) of preventing or minimising, or remedying or mitigating the effects of, any harm by reason of which the contaminated land is such land; or (ii) of restoring the land to its former state; or (c) the making of subsequent inspections from time to time for the purpose of keeping under review the condition of the land; and references to remediating shall be construed accordingly. (7A) For the purpose of paragraph (b) of subsection (7) above, “the doing of any works, the carrying out of any operations or the taking of any steps in relation to any such land” shall include ensuring that— (a) any such area is demarcated; (aa) affected members of the public are identified; (ab) assessment of the means available to the individuals identified under paragraph (aa) for controlling their own exposure is made; (b) arrangements for the monitoring of the harm are made; (c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (d) access to or use of land or buildings situated in the demarcated area is regulated ; and (e) any other appropriate protective or remedial measure is implemented.

  • “substance” means, whether in solid or liquid form or in the form of a gas or vapour, any substance containing radionuclides which have resulted from the after-effects of an emergency or have been processed as part of a past practice or past work activity;

; and

  • and any other word or expression used both in this Part and in Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom, laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom, has the same meaning for the purposes of this Part as it has in that Directive.

(9A) When reading Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom for the purposes of subsection (9), Article 4(43) of that Directive (definition of inspection) is to be read as if, for the words “any competent authority”, there were substituted “the enforcing authority”.

Section 78B (Identification of contaminated land)

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(1) Where a local authority considers that there are reasonable grounds for believing that any land may be contaminated, it shall cause the land to be inspected for the purpose of— (a) identifying whether it is contaminated land; and (b) enabling the authority to decide whether the land is land which is required to be designated as a special site. (1A) The fact that substances have been or are present on the land shall not of itself be taken to be reasonable grounds for the purposes of subsection (1).

Section 78C (Identification and designation of special sites)

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(a) whether land of the description in question appears to him to be land which is likely to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land that serious harm would or might be caused; or (b) whether the appropriate Agency is likely to have expertise in dealing with the kind of harm by reason of which land of the description in question is contaminated land.

Section 78E (Duty of enforcing authority to require remediation of contaminated land etc)

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(4) Subject to subsection (4A), the only things by way of remediation which the enforcing authority may do, or require to be done, under or by virtue of this Part are things which it considers reasonable, having regard to— (a) the cost which is likely to be involved; and (b) the seriousness of the harm in question. (4A) Where remediation includes the implementation of a protective or remedial measure, that part of the remediation which consists of the implementation of any such measure may be considered reasonable only— (a) where the measure does more good than harm; and (b) where the form, scale and duration of the measure is optimised. (4B) For the purpose of subsection (4A), the form, scale and duration of a protective or remedial measure shall be taken to be optimised if the magnitude of individual doses, the likelihood of exposure and the number of individuals exposed are kept as low as reasonably achievable taking into account the current state of technical knowledge and economic and societal factors.

Section 78G (Grant of, and compensation for, rights of entry etc)

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(7) In this section, “relevant land” means— (a) the contaminated land in question; or (b) any land adjoining or adjacent to that land.

SCHEDULE 2 — DIRECTIVE DEFINITIONS

Activity (A): the activity, A, of an amount of a radionuclide in a particular energy state at a given time is the quotient of dN by dt, where dN is the expectation value of the number of spontaneous nuclear transitions from that energy state in the time interval dt:

$$A=dNdt$ the unit of activity is the becquerel.$

Signed

Elliot Morley — Minister of State, — Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — 2005-12-14

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1990 c. 43. Sections 78A to 78YC were inserted by section 57 of the Environment Act 1995 (c. 25). See the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations” in section 78A(9). The powers under these sections have been transferred in relation to Wales (see article 2 of, and Schedule 1 to, the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672)) and devolved to Scottish Ministers (see section 53 of the Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46)).

[^f00002]: OJ No L 159, 29.06.1996, p.1.

Activity (A): the activity, A, of an amount of a radionuclide in a particular energy state at a given time is the quotient of dN by dt, where dN is the expectation value of the number of spontaneous nuclear transitions from that energy state in the time interval dt:

$A=dNdt$

the unit of activity is the becquerel.

Apprentice: a person receiving training or instruction within an undertaking with a view to exercising a specific skill.

Artificial sources: radiation sources other than natural radiation sources.

Becquerel (Bq): is the special name of the unit of activity. One becquerel is equivalent to one transition per second:

1 Bq = 1 s⁻¹.

Dose limits: maximum references laid down in Title IV for the doses resulting from the exposure of workers, apprentices and students and members of the public to ionizing radiation covered by this Directive that apply to the sum of the relevant doses from external exposures in the specified period and the 50-year committed doses (up to age 70 for children) from intakes in the same period.

Emergency exposure: an exposure of individuals implementing the necessary rapid action to bring help to endangered individuals, prevent exposure of a large number of people or save a valuable installation or goods, whereby one of the individual dose limits equal to that laid down for exposed workers could be exceeded. Emergency exposure shall apply only to volunteers.

Exposed workers: persons, either self-employed or working for an employer, subject to an exposure incurred at work from practices covered by this Directive and liable to result in doses exceeding one or other of the dose levels equal to the dose limits for members of the public.

Exposure: the process of being exposed to ionizing radiation.

Health detriment: an estimate of the risk of reduction in length and quality of life occurring in a population following exposure to ionizing radiations. This includes loss arising from somatic effects, cancer and severe genetic disorder.

Intake: the activities of radionuclides entering the body from the external environment.

Intervention: a human activity that prevents or decreases the exposure of individuals to radiation from sources which are not part of a practice or which are out of control, by acting on sources, transmission pathways and individuals themselves.

Ionizing radiation: the transfer of energy in the form of particles or electromagnetic waves of a wavelength of 100 nanometers or less or a frequency of 3 × 10¹⁵ Hertz or more capable of producing ions directly or indirectly.

Members of the public: individuals in the population, excluding exposed workers, apprentices and students during their working hours and individuals during the exposures referred to in Article 6(4)(a), (b) and (c).

Natural radiation sources: sources of ionizing radiation from natural terrestrial or cosmic origin.

Practice: a human activity that can increase the exposure of individuals to radiation from an artificial source, or from a natural radiation source where natural radionuclides are processed for their radioactive, fissile or fertile properties, except in the case of an emergency exposure.

Radioactive substance: any substance that contains one or more radionuclides the activity or concentration of which cannot be disregarded as far as radiation protection is concerned.

Radiological emergency: a situation that requires urgent action in order to protect workers, members of the public or the population either partially or as a whole.

Source: an apparatus, a radioactive substance or an installation capable of emitting ionizing radiation or radioactive substances.

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