LICENSING PROBLEMS

J. Frid, Hon Secretary, The Association for Petroleum & Explosives Administration A talk given by Mr Frid to the Conference on Administration and Enforcement of the Licencing Provisions of The Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 1928, held by the Health and Safety Executive in London on 14th April 1978.

The Petroleum Act of 1928 is, in my opinion, one of the few pieces of technical legislation that has been used to it's limits - some would say beyond this - and with a few exceptions, has stood the test of time. However it has now, I believe, been overtaken by industrial development and modern practice. I feel that its' basic concepts are still visible, and with suitable modification could serve us for a further fifty years. It is my task in this brief review of the subject to highlight some of the deficiencies that I believe exist in the law, with particular reference to petrol filling stations and can and drum stores, deficiences which you may well wish to emphasise later.

If I may, I will deal with the problems associated with filling stations first, and commence my remarks by to the Home Office Code of Practice for this type of premises. The Code was published in 1968 almost ten years ago, and, although much has been done by petroleum officers throughout the country to attain the very minimal standards set out in the Code, many of the older licensed premises are still well below these standards. Local Authorities, particularly since Local Government re-organisation in 1974. have endeavoured to remedy this situation. Some have . indicated their unwillingness to re-licence such sub-standard stations when current licences expire, others have given such licensees various periods of time to bring their establishments up to stanctard, whilst a third category, by dint of persuasion and pressure have attempted to gradually raise the standards of safety at these sites. The growth in the numbers of appeals is one measure of this unsatisfactory situation. Licensing Authorities are constantly asking the question, if the Home Office felt in 1968 that their recommendations were reasonable for new filling stations, why then are those recommendations not reasonable for all filling stations today. In view of the fact that ten years have passed, and during that time legislation directed at safety has increased, the question should not go begging for much longer.

Whilst making this particular comment I would like to make a further point. It concerns the lack of information about appeals. We are told that these are increasing, wouldn't it be advantageous to all if the circumstances and decisions regarding these were made available to Licensing Authorities? At least this might save repetitive appeals, and would surely give Authorities further guidelines which could be considered when similar problems were encountered.

Another difficulty which appears to be causing a great deal of concern to Licensing Authorities, is that of derelict or out of use underground storage tanks. Here we have differing circumstances which are causing considerable problems. Firstly there is the tank that has contained petroleum spirit and which has been put temporarily out of use. Filled with water it is quite safe, but for how long should this be allowed? What inspection should be undertaken to ensure that it is still safe? Furthermore when the licence for such storage expires, and the licensee as sometimes happens, goes out of business for some reason or other, what then is reasonable action on the part of the Authority? It can of course invoke the time consuming, and in the opinion of some, the unreasonable provisions of Section 73 of the Public Health Act 1961, but this seems to me to be a most unsatisfactory method of dealing with a problem that could well be remedied by suitable

modiIications to existing Petroleum that many in this area of commerce legislation. I feel that it would be experience. In some cases they wish advantageous to all concerned with these andto keep a number of differing other prob lems, if the Execu ·::'ive would take flammable substances, some of which a long look at the situation and are petroleum mixtures others which incorporate suitable remedies in new may be flammable sUbstances controlled legislation or Codes of Practice. At by Regulations administered by the the same time it would be most useful Health and Safety Executive Inspectors. if the Executive would also examine the Similarly their spray shop and spraying various test methods used to determine operations are liable to inspection the soundness of underground storage under further legislation. All this tanks, and to issue some guidance, by for what is in many cases a small one or Model Code or other method, as to two man operation, no wonder our what form of test should be acceptable faces are red when remarks are passed in order to standardise the approach about the waste of tax payers' money. to this further difficulty. There will no doubt be many other problems that Authorities will wish to raise with regard to petrol filling stations, but these I feel are the one's that are currently giving the most cause for concern. I now come to an area of our work that in my opinion borders on the ludicrous, the licencing and control of can and drum stores. I must confess personally to having felt ridiculously bureaucratic on many occasions, whilst trying to explain to a person wishing to keep a small qunatity of petroleum mixtures, that I am not interested in his problems in relation to perhaps thousands of gallons of some other highly flammable substance which he also wishes to store. In many cases he is required to construct a completely separate store for what is sometimes a very small percentage of stored flammables. He can only keep such petroleum mixtures under licence, whilst his other storage, possibly of more dangerous chemicals, has to satisfy different legislation. How much easier and more efficient our task would be, if we were able to look at and advise on his entire problem of storage, rather than as now, a small part of it. Then there is the further problem of deciding what is'keeping' under the Petroleum Acts, and distinguishing between that and 'use'. Again different legislation is involved, enforced by a different authority. In the majority of circumstances cases like these could be adequately served by one inspector applying legislation covering the whole operation from the delivery of such substances to their final disposal. The situation that exists in vehicle spray shops is a typical example, and demonstrates the understandable confusion Whilst on the subject of can and drum stores, I would like to mention one further problem that has been with us for many years and appears to be growing daily. This involves the ever increasing variety of petroleum mixtures used about the home, adhesives, solvents, paint sprays, etc. Almost every department store, ironmongers, chemist, shoe repairers, supermarket, builders merchant and do it yourself shop, carries a stock of flammables many of which are petroleum mixtures. Current legislation and Codes of Practice are not designed to cater for this type of storage. In many shops it is virtually impossible to enforce existing legislation without closing down that particular service. To explain to the busy entrepreneur that whilst it is perfectly alright for him to keep up to three gallons of petroleum mixtures in containers not exceeding one pint in his shop, he cannot keep that quantity in one litre containers, is difficult, particularly when on the next shelf he has perhaps twenty gallons of another substance, equally flammable, but not petroleum mixture. No doubt there are many other similar instances of difficulties experienced under present Petroleum legislation that will be put forward later. From the points that I have raised in this brief paper, I think it is obvious. that changes will have to be made 1n the legislation that we currently administer. That this conference has been arranged must indicate that we are not alone in thinking that this important area of public safety needs to be looked at closely. Let us hope that the right answers are found, for when legislation lags ,ehind technical progress, there is the danger that safety lags behind also.