Ministerial Report
To: Senator I. Le Marquand, Minister for Home Affairs
Senator L. Farnham, Assistant Minister for Home Affairs
S. W. Austin-Vautier, Chief Officer, Home Affairs
Chief Fire Officer M. James
From: Deputy Chief Fire Officer P. Brown
Cc: Group Manager M. Maguire, Director of Safer Communities
Date: 23 May 2012
Subject: Amendments to Petroleum Legislation
1. Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this Ministerial Report is to apprise the Minister of the reasons for an amendment to the Petroleum (Jersey) Law 1984 and the making of Regulations in relation to the definition of petroleum spirit.
2. Background
2.1 The Petroleum (Jersey) Law 1984 concerns the keeping, storage, conveyance, handling and use of petroleum spirit and other substances.
2.2 At Article 1 (Interpretation), petroleum spirit is defined. The definition used is imported from UK law however the technical definition used in the UK has changed in line with EEC directives along with the technical method for testing of petroleum spirit. The effect of the UK change is to render the local definition outdated.
3. Amendment to the Petroleum Law
3.1 The Petroleum (Amendment No. 3) (Jersey) Law 201- amends the Petroleum (Jersey) Law 1984 by importing a new definition for petroleum spirit. The definition is again linked to that used in the Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 1928 of the United Kingdom. Unlike in the original 1984 law (the principal law) the amended law will simply link the local definition to that used in the UK Act and will not provide technical detail so as to avoid any changes in EEC and UK definitions from rendering local definitions out of date.
4. Making of Petroleum Substances (Jersey) Regulations 201-
4.1 If approved by the States Assembly and given assent by Her Majesty in Council the amended principal law will be adequate in itself to resolve the issue of the change in technical definition of petroleum spirit. Such progress notwithstanding, there will, in any event, be a period of some months before the amended principal law will be brought into force during which time the local definition will not be applicable as it refers to a further definition which no longer exists.
4.2 To provide an interim mechanism to provide a technical definition, the intention is that the States make Regulations which extend the scope of the principal law to cover petroleum spirit in the form as defined in the updated UK legislation and used locally.