Chemicals Act 2008

2

Interpretation.

2.— (1) In this Act—

“Act of 1972” means the European Communities Act 1972;

“Authority” means the Health and Safety Authority;

F1[chemical includes

F2[(a) a chemical, substance, mixture or article within the meaning of the Rotterdam Regulation,]

(b) a detergent within the meaning of the Detergents Regulation,

(c) a substance, preparation or article within the meaning of the REACH Regulation,

(d) a substance, mixture or article within the meaning of the CLP Regulation, and

(e) a dangerous substance within the meaning of

(i) F3[Directive 2012/18/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, amending and subsequently repealing Council Directive 96/82/EC (hereinafter referred to as the “Seveso III Directive”), and]

(ii) Council Directive 67/548/EEC of 27 June 19672 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances;]

F4[ CLP Regulation means Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures 3; ]

“code of practice” means a code of practice prepared and published, or approved of, by the Authority in accordance with section 7, and includes part of a code of practice;

“contravention notice” has the meaning assigned to it by section 15;

F5["Data Protection Regulation" means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 201636 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation);]

F6[Detergents Regulation means Regulation (EC) No. 648/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on detergents4; ]

“European Communities” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1972;

F7[European Regulations means

(a) the Rotterdam Regulation,

(b) the Detergents Regulation,

(c) the REACH Regulation, and

(d) the CLP Regulation;]

“external authority” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9;

“improvement plan” means a plan required to be submitted under section 14;

“information notice” has the meaning assigned to it by section 27;

“inspector” means a person appointed under section 11 by a national authority;

“Member State” means a state that is a member of the European Communities and includes states that are parties to the agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2 May 1992, as adjusted by the protocol done at Brussels on 17 March 1993;

“Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;

“mutual cooperation arrangements” means arrangements under section 9;

F3[“national authority” means—

(a) a designated national authority in the State under section 8(1),

(b) a competent authority in the State under section 8(2), 8(3) or 8(3A),

(c) a person prescribed in accordance with section 5(3), or,

(d) the Authority as the Central Competent Authority within the meaning of section 8(3B);]

“place” means any structure, premises, land or other location or part of such place, and includes any container, railway wagon, vessel, aircraft, motor or other vehicle;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

“prohibition notice” has the meaning assigned by section 16;

F8[REACH Regulation means Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and establishing a European Chemicals Agency5;]

F9["record" includes any memorandum, book, report, statement, register, plan, chart, map, drawing, specification, diagram, pictorial or graphic work or other document, any photograph, film or recording (whether of sound or images or both), any form in which data (including data that constitute personal data within the meaning of the Data Protection Regulation or Part 5 of the Data Protection Act 2018) are held, any form (including machine-readable form) or thing in which information is held or stored manually, mechanically or electronically, and anything that is a part or copy, in any form, of any of, or any combination of, the foregoing;]

“relevant chemicals statutory provisions” means—

(a) the European Regulations,

(b) this Act, or

(c) regulations made under this Act;

“relevant Minister” means, in relation to a national authority that is not a Minister of the Government, the Minister of the Government (other than the Minister) in whom functions are vested in relation to that national authority;

F2["Rotterdam Regulation" means Regulation (EU) No. 649/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 concerning the export and import of hazardous chemicals2;]

“special report” means a report made under section 18.

(2) Subject to subsection (1), a word or expression that is used in this Act and is also used in a European Regulation has the same meaning in this Act that it has in that European Regulation.

Annotations

Amendments:

F1

Substituted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(a), S.I. No. 591 of 2010.

F2

Substituted (10.05.2019) by Chemicals Act 2008 (Rotterdam Regulation) Regulations 2019 (S.I. No. 213 of 2019), reg. 3.

F3

Substituted (1.06.2015) by Chemicals Act (Control of Major Accident Hazards Involving Dangerous Substances) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 209 of 2015), reg. 6(1)(a), (b), in effect as per reg. 5.

F4

Inserted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(b), S.I. No. 591 of 2010.

F5

Inserted (25.05.2018) by Data Protection Act 2018 (7/2018), s. 209(b), S.I. No. 174 of 2018.

F6

Substituted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(c), S.I. No. 591 of 2010.

F7

Substituted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(d), S.I. No. 591 of 2010.

F8

Substituted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(f), S.I. No. 591 of 2010.

F9

Substituted (25.05.2018) by Data Protection Act 2018 (7/2018), s. 209(a), S.I. No. 174 of 2018.

Editorial Notes:

E2

Previous affecting provision: definition of national authority, para. (b) substituted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(e), S.I. No. 591 of 2010; definition substituted as per F-note above.

E3

Previous affecting provision: definition of Rotterdam Regulation substituted (10.12.2010) by Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (32/2010), s. 2(g), S.I. No. 591 of 2010; substituted as per F-note above.