New 90 days requirement: Major Hazard Installation Regulations

New 90 days requirement: Major Hazard Installation Regulations

• 07 November 2023
• Compliance
• South African Accounting Academy

The Major Hazard Installation Regulations was promulgated on 13 November 2022 and published on 31 January 2023 and application was announced on 17 May 2023. As such the MHI Regulations, 2001 have been repealed and are no longer applicable.

The purpose of this is to ensure that the employees as well as the public members are protected from MHI incidents which include fire, toxic emissions, as well as confined explosions.

The Department of Employment and Labour is “making sure that all these MHIs are designed and built for purpose; they are not located in areas where the public will be unnecessarily exposed to incidents; there are emergency plans in place; the integrity of the installations is ensured; they are in good condition and are all operated in a proper manner".

The old regulations had no prescribed quantities and so the current ones do have quantities and we quantify what the Major Hazard Installation is and the definitions that make it easy for the implementation as well as the installation to understand what needs to be done and what is relevant.

It is no longer relevant whether the installation is temporary or permanent, as every installation that has prescribed quantities is an MHI, adding that with the old regulation, there was no formal registration and there was a lack of accountability on MHIs.

The notifications for any MHI will have to go to the Municipality first before going to the Department of Employment and Labour.

Regulation number 4, which used to be regulation number 3 in the old regulations, still talks about notification. The only thing that was changed there is that you have to notify the Department, Local Government as well as the Provincial Department within 90 days, which is 90 days before you even start the project. This is after the 60-day notification under the 2001 regulation which has been repealed.

The MHI that are already existing and that were regulated under the 2001 regulations have 24 months to transition into the new requirement. The 24 months has already started counting from 1 February 2023 and end on 1 January 2025.

MHIs are also required to be advertised in the newspapers locally before the new installations can be built and the advertisements must be in English and the most common local language of the location every 5 years or whenever there is a change within the MHIs.

Registration will be taken away if you are not a responsible operator and operators are required to comply.

Refer to our previous Technical Alert of 3 February 2023, or download the Government Gazette containing the MHI Regulations at https://18a66295-3a0f-41fb-a13d-9849edd3b2a3.usrfiles.com/ugd/18a662_211d599a4a88424284ed3acf7cad9e2a.pdf

Click here to access the Media Statement for more details:

https://www.labour.gov.za/major-hazard-installers-now-have-ninety-days-to-notify-authorities-before-starting-any-project-for-the-safety-of-employees

Relevance to Auditors, Independent Reviewers & Accountants:

• The Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA) is yet another piece of legislation that your clients must comply with, and which you must assess compliance with.  If they don’t comply with the relevant laws and regulations, you have certain reporting obligations in terms of NOCLAR (Non-Compliance with Laws And Regulations) – this could include reporting to management, qualifying your audit opinion, reporting a Reportable Irregularity, etc.

• As an employer, you also need to comply with the OHSA in your workplace.

Relevance to Your Clients:

• An establishment has a duty to comply with the Occupational Health & Safety Act, otherwise, they could be held liable.

• These Regulations apply to (a) major hazard installations; (b) establishments with the prescribed quantity of substances listed in Chapter 1 or 2; and (c) major pipeline establishments. (2) These Regulations, excluding regulations 11, 12 and 13, apply to low-hazard establishments. (3) These Regulations, excluding regulations 12 and 13, apply to medium hazard establishments. (4) Regulations 14 and 15 apply to local government. (5) Regulations 21 and 22 apply to an approved inspection authority. (6) These Regulations do not apply to nuclear installations registered in terms of the Nuclear Energy Act, 1993 (Act No. 131 of 1993).

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