Pressure Equipment, Cranes, and Passenger Ropeways Regulations 1999 - A general guide to the Health and Safety in Employment
Published by the Department of Labour
Wellington
New Zealand
July 1999
ISBN 0-478-28103-X
Revised April 2007 (online version only)
DOL 10354
Contents
About this guide
This is a general guide to the Health and Safety in Employment (Pressure Equipment, Cranes, and Passenger Ropeways) Regulations (PECPR Regulations) promulgated under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. These regulations came into effect in June 1999.
This guide is a summary of the main features of the regulations and is not a substitute for the regulations themselves.
Equipment covered by the PECPR Regulations 1999
The equipment categories covered by the PECPR Regulations are:
Pressure equipment
Pressure equipment, including steam boilers, fired heaters, boiler piping, pressure vessels and pressure piping, which contain any of:
- gases at pressures exceeding 50 kPa
- liquids at pressures exceeding 50 kPa
- steam
and also includes hot water boilers, the purpose of which is to heat water at pressures exceeding 200 kPa and temperatures exceeding 100°C.
Cranes
All powered cranes, including those attached to a vehicle and used for loading and unloading that vehicle.
Passenger ropeways
Equipment that conveys passengers in a horizontal or inclined plane, whether on skis or other similar device, supported by a chair, or in an enclosed car.
Who has duties under the regulations?
The PECPR Regulations place particular duties, in relation to equipment that is used or intended for use in a place of work in New Zealand, on:
- controllers of the equipment
- employees
- designers
- manufacturers
- suppliers.
The PECPR Regulations also identify the following organisations and individuals and define the conditions under which they function:
- inspection bodies
- design verifiers
- equipment inspectors
- agencies issuing qualifications.
The specific duties are covered in more detail later in this guide.
Requirements of the regulations on equipment
Equipment covered by the PECPR Regulations must be:
- designed and manufactured to a recognised standard
- designed to be safe in use
- design verified
- manufactured to a verified design
- inspected during manufacture
- periodically inspected in service by an accredited inspection body
- operated safely and not operated at all without a current certificate of inspection issued by a recognised accredited inspection body
- maintained in a safe condition
- if found to be unsafe, withdrawn from service and controlled.
Exemptions from the requirements of the regulations
The equipment listed in Schedule 2 to the PECPR Regulations is excluded from these regulations.
There are further provisions within the regulations for exemptions for controllers, designers, manufacturers, suppliers or for the equipment itself. Application for an exemption should be made to:
Engineering Safety
Department of Labour
PO Box 3705
Wellington
Such exemption, if granted, will be notified in the New Zealand Gazette.
In addition, detailed requirements on conformity assessment procedures for particular groups of equipment can be found in the following publications, published by the Department of Labour, which support the PECPR Regulations:
- Approved Code of Practice for the Design, Safe Operation, Maintenance and Servicing of Boilers
- Approved Code of Practice for the Design, Operation, Maintenance and Servicing of Pressure Equipment
- Approved Code of Practice for Cranes
- Approved Code of Practice for Passenger Ropeways in New Zealand.
Legal background
Pressure equipment, cranes and passenger ropeways are subject to regulation to ensure the safety of people using this equipment in New Zealand.
Some of this equipment was formerly regulated by the Boilers, Lifts and Cranes Act 1950, which is now repealed. The PECPR Regulations also cover some equipment not covered by the previous Act; in particular, fired heaters, hot water boilers and passenger ropeways.
The qualification of land engine drivers and boiler attendants is now under the jurisdiction of a qualification-issuing agency - the Dairy Industry Training Organisation. Requirements for boiler staffing levels and operators' qualifications are given in the Approved Code of Practice for the Design, Safe Operation, Maintenance and Servicing of Boilers.
The PECPR Regulations are administered by the Department of Labour.
The health and safety in employment legislation
The PECPR Regulations are promulgated under the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Act 1992 and the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 1998. These Acts place a number of duties on employers and persons who own or lease equipment.
Section 6(c) of the HSE Act requires employers to take "all practicable steps" to ensure that equipment is so arranged, designed, made and maintained that it is safe for employees to use.
Sections 7 to 10 of the HSE Act require an employer to have in place effective systems for identifying hazards and to take "all practicable steps" to ensure that employees are adequately protected from significant hazards.
Sections 12 and 13 of the HSE Act require employers to take "all practicable steps" to ensure that every employee is appropriately supervised and given information and adequate training in the safe use of equipment.
Section 16 of the HSE Act, as amended by the HSE Amendment Act 1998, requires owners and lessees of equipment (persons who control places of work) to take "all practicable steps" to ensure that people at work and people in the vicinity of the place of work are not harmed by the operation of equipment.
The key words here are "all practicable steps". This term is defined in the Act and means that consideration must be given to the likelihood that harm will result from the operation of the equipment, the likely severity of such harm, the current safety standards and methods available to prevent harm, the effectiveness of those standards and methods, and the cost of applying them.
Some minimum standards that employers and others in control of workplaces must meet to be certain they have taken "all practicable steps" are set out in the Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995. These regulations also include general duties of people designing, manufacturing or supplying plant or protective equipment. The duties imposed on designers, manufacturers and suppliers under Part 3 of the PECPR Regulations complement the duties imposed on those persons under Part VII of the HSE Regulations 1995.
The approved codes of practice under the HSE Act, and standards for the design, manufacturing and operation of plant recognised under the PECPR Regulations, reflect the current state of knowledge about safe use of the equipment. The Engineering Safety Group will expect the equipment designers, manufacturers, suppliers and controllers to take all practicable steps to comply with these approved codes of practice and recognised standards.