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SAFETY

Towards
COMAH 2015
Fifteen years on, the UKs COMAH regulations are
getting a facelift. Rachel McCann outlines the
main changes and their implications

ROM June 2015, the responsibilities

of high hazard sites in the UK (and
the EU) are set to change. While the
amendments are not major in terms of
framework, you will need to be aware and
become familiar with important changes
regarding scope and public access to
information.

why is COMAH changing?

In the UK, the most recent incarnation of
the Control of Major Accident Hazards, or
COMAH, regulations have been in force since
1999 (see box). They act as the UKs enforcing
regulations of the EUs Seveso II Directive,
which was originally brought in as a result of
the renowned Seveso disaster in Italy in 1976.
While the Seveso II Directive is regarded
across the EU by industry and regulators as

The Seveso III Directive,

which was adopted by the
European Commission
on 4 July 2012, must be
implemented by member
states by 1 June 2015.
30

successful and proportionate, it has been

renegotiated. The end result is the Seveso
III Directive, which was adopted by the
European Commission on 4 July 2012, and
must be implemented by member states by
1June 2015.
The drivers for this renegotiation were twofold. Firstly, the directives defining the scope
of Seveso II, implemented in the UK as the
Chemicals Hazard Information and Packaging
for Supply (CHIP) Regulations, are being
replaced by the Classification, Labelling and
Packaging (CLP) Regulation which adopts
the United Nations Globally Harmonised
System on the classification and labelling of
chemicals. Since the CHIP Regulations define
the scope of Seveso II, and consequently
COMAH 1999, failure to replace or update the
directive would, come 1 June 2015, render the
regulations meaningless.
Secondly, the Commission wished to align
the directive with the UNECE Convention on
Access to Information, Public Participation
in Decision-making and Access to Justice in
Environmental Matters (known as the Aarhus
Convention), of which the UK is a signatory.
The consequences of this decision will see
firms having to share more information with
the public about their sites.

www.tcetoday.com july/august 2014

COMAH 1999
at a glance
COMAH 1999 and its amendments
2005, is the enforcing regulation within
the UK of the Seveso II Directive the
main piece of EU legislation that deals
specifically with the control of onshore
major accident hazards involving
dangerous substances. The regulations
apply to any establishment storing or
otherwise handling large quantities of
industrial chemicals of a hazardous
nature. Types of establishments
include chemical warehousing,
chemical production facilities and
some distributors.
The regulations operate on two
levels lower tier and upper tier,
determined by inventory.
Lower-tier facilities must document a
major accident prevention policy.
Upper-tier facilities must produce a
full safety report which demonstrates
that all necessary measures have been
taken to minimise risks posed by the
site with regard to the environment and
local populations.
Penalties for unauthorised storage
can be severe and companies
unsure of whether or not the COMAH
regulations apply to them should seek
advice from trade associations and
local health and safety inspectors.

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SAFETY

Great Britains Health and

Safety Executive (HSE) has
policy responsibility for
transposing the majority
of Seveso III into domestic
legislation via the updated
COMAH 2015 regulations.
Great Britains Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) has policy responsibility for
transposing the majority of Seveso III into
domestic legislation via the updated
COMAH 2015 regulations which will come
into force in June 2015.
The directives land use planning controls
remain the responsibility of the Department
for Communities and Local Government, the
Scottish government and Welsh government.
Responsible for their respective territories,
they will implement these controls through
separate legislation.

differences between
COMAH 1999 and Seveso
III/COMAH 2015
Seveso III has not fundamentally changed
the existing framework for the regulation of
onshore major accident hazards. The key
tenets of identifying sites and applying control
and mitigation measures through a risk-based
system remain the same as do many of the
key duties and requirements. HSE has sought
to minimise the change for operators and
regulators, and much of the new regulations
will look familiar to those familiar with
COMAH.
The two main changes in the new directive
relate to scope and freedom of information.

scope
The scope of Seveso III is defined by the
CLP Regulation which sees some changes in

categories and movement of substances in

and out of scope.
The generic categories previously known
as very toxic and toxic are defined by
Seveso III as acute toxic categories 13, with
specified exposure routes (oral, dermal and
inhalation). The correlation with the existing
classification regime is not direct, meaning
that there will be some movement of sites in
or out of scope entirely, or between tiers.
The CLP Regulation adds flammable
aerosols to the categories of dangerous
substances, moves alternative fuels with the
same purpose and similar properties to the
generic category of petroleum product, as
well as some other minor changes.
Further information on the classification
of dangerous substances can be found on
HSEs website.1

public information
Seveso IIIs alignment with the Aarhus
Convention (see box) creates new
responsibilities to make information
available to the public and there is an
expectation that the public has a right
to know and to be involved in matters
regarding major hazardsites.
All sites will have to make basic
information permanently and electronically
available. This will include the sites name
and address, a simple summary of the sites
activities, the hazard classification of its
inventories and its principal dangerous
characteristics. All sites will also have to
provide basic information on how the
public will be warned in the event of a major
accident and what action should be taken.
The date of the sites last inspection and
details of where further information can be
obtained will also be made available.
Upper tier sites will also need to provide
general information on the nature of
potential major accident hazards at the site,
including a summary of possible scenarios
and control measures. They must also
confirm that adequate accident response

The Aarhus Convention, informing the public and

itsimpact on COMAH 2015
The Aarhus Convention, signed by 46 parties, including the UK, came into
force on 30 October 2001. It is globally regarded as the benchmark for access to
information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters and is
based around three central pillars:

and emergency planning arrangements

are in place. They will still be required to
proactively provide information to persons
likely to be affected by a major accident.
HSE is proposing that the new information
be held on a postcode-searchable, accountbased platform hosted by the COMAH
competent authority on the HSE website.
Opinions and feedback on this proposal
have been sought via public consultation.
Additionally, the competent authority
will be required to make other information
about COMAH sites, including safety reports
and inspection plans available to the public
on request. Procedures will be in place to
allow for these documents to be suitably
redacted on the grounds of commercial
confidentiality and national security. The
Home Office and security services will
provide expert input into guidance on
redaction for national security reasons.
This is a significant change of position
for industry, the regulator and for wider
stakeholders as the COMAH regime will be
more open and transparent to the public.

other changes
In addition to scope and public information,
there are other changes in the proposed new
Regulations to be aware of. These include:
Emergency Plans the new regulations
propose sites that become upper tier under
COMAH 2015 solely through a change
in the CLP alignment (defined as other
establishments) be given 2 years to provide
information to produce their external
emergency plan to the local authority. This
reflects the nature of other establishments
as those where inventories, processes or
major accident hazard scenarios have
not changed and are moving tier through
the transition from CHIP to CLP and the
differences in alignment.
In addition, a requirement not in the
directive is proposed that would compel
Category 1 responders as defined by
the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (local
authorities, emergency services, primary
healthcare trusts, port health authorities and
the environment agencies) to test external
emergency plans if deemed necessary by the
responsible local authority. This proposal
was raised through informal consultation
feedback which said that the overall efficacy
of testing was being affected by the capacity

access to environmental information;

public participation in environmental decision-making; and
access to justice in environmental matters.
In 2013, UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon described it as the most ambitious
venture in the field of environmental democracy under the auspices of the United
Nations.

32

www.tcetoday.com july/august 2014

The Home Office and

security services will provide
expert input into guidance
on redaction for national
security reasons.

CAREERS
SAFETY tce
of some parts of the emergency services to
participate. Opinions on this proposal have
been sought via the public consultation.
Domino effects Seveso III adds a further
duty for domino groups to, as far as possible,
cooperate with neighbouring non-COMAH
sites that may be relevant to its major accident
hazard scenarios. A domino group is a group
of sites, identified by the competent authority,
where the hazard profile of one or more sites
and its proximity to other sites could trigger
or exacerbate a major accident scenario. The
competent authority also has a new duty to
provide the domino group with any additional
relevant information, such as regarding
nearby non-COMAH sites that it may hold
under another regime.

what does this mean for

stakeholders?
Although most aspects of the COMAH regime
will remain the same or very similar, the
changes outlined here mean that operators
and other stakeholders will need to familiarise
themselves with the new requirements and
associated guidance to ensure understanding
and compliance.
Some operators and stakeholders will have

to take action over the next two years to

ensure compliance with the new regulations.
Legal guidance to support the regulations
will be available on HSEs website from
mid March 2015 with further guidance on
specific topics to follow after June 2015.
HSE is hoping to produce guidance for
operators of upper tier sites due to revise
safety reports between now and 1 June 2015
as part of the standard five-year cycle, who
wish to future-proof their updates. This will
be published on HSEs website.

what happens next?

HSE held a public consultation on the
proposed COMAH 2015 regulations which
concluded on 27 June 2014. A formal
response to this consultation, including
the way forward to 1 June 2015, will be
published in October 2014, and will
illustrate how the feedback received has
been considered in the final version of the
regulations to be laid before parliament in
March 2015.
HSE will provide updated advice and
information on its website2 when it
becomes available. The legal guidance to
the regulations will be available online from
mid-March 2015 with hard copies available

from 1 June 2015, the day the new regulations

will come into force. tce
Rachel McCann (rachel.mccann@hse.gsi.
gov.uk) is policy advisor at HSEs chemical
industries policy team
1. Further information on the classification
of dangerous substances can be found on
HSEs website (www.hse.gov.uk/chemicalclassification/index)
2. Developments in these regulations and
their implications will be publicised in the
Seveso III e-bulletin. Visit www.hse.gov.uk/
seveso/ebulletin to register.

Chemical Engineering Matters

The topics discussed in this article refer to the
following lines on the vistas of IChemEs technical
strategy document Chemical Engineering Matters:

Energy Line 24
Health and wellbeing
Lines 1114, 15, 1621

Visit www.icheme.org/vistas1 to discover where

this article and your own activities fit into the myriad
of grand challenges facing chemical engineers

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