Updated safety rules to include offshore projects

The updated regulations would cover offshore energy projects

New health and safety laws being brought forward to modernise island standards are set to be extended to include offshore energy projects.

The overhaul of the the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 2003 would also introduce improved rights for pregnant agency workers.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (Defa) said other updates included the removal of "outdated exemptions" to ensure fire precautions were in place on all construction sites which were revoked in 2012.

Defa Minister Clare Barber said the amendments were "about keeping health and safety laws up-to-date, practical, and aligned with international good practice".

The changes would help employers "manage risks effectively and ensure all workers, including agency staff, are properly protected", she said.

The department will ask Tynwald to approve the changes, which would bring the rules in line with equivalent legislation in the UK, at the October sitting of the Manx parliament.

Workplace risk assessments are not mandatory for pregnant agency workerd

The updated regulations would extend the document provisions to "waters and offshore installations in territorial waters and outside of the island".

Defa said including renewable wind developments would mean emerging industries would be expected to meet "the same high safety standards".

Proposals for a wind farm off the east coast of the Isle of Man could see 87 turbines installed on a site between six and 12 nautical miles (11.1km to 22.2km) off Maughold.

Meanwhile, the need for construction sites to put fire precautions in place would see the reintroduction of the requirement after more than a decade.

An exemption was previously introduced as fire safety was catered for in the Construction (Health and Safety) Regulations 1985, but this was then were repealed in 2012.

A Defa spokesman said since the regulations were introduced over 20 years ago a number of changes to both UK and Manx legislation had occurred and the amendments would bring the regulations "up to date with good practice".