Consultation document CD214:
Proposed changes to explosives legislation

The HSC (Health and Safety Commission) has proposed some changes to the explosives legislation. Some of these changes will affect black powder shooters and some will not. The closing date for the official consultation responses is 1 Feb 2008.

The consultation document is located at: www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd214.htm

The proposals that affect black powder shooters are generally sensible and helpful to us, for example the proposal to change the duration of explosives certificates to 5 year to match the duration of FAC's. There is also a proposal that shooters holding small amounts of black powder should be exempt from having to hold explosives certificate provided that they wrote to the police to inform them that they would be holding black powder. For those holding 'larger' amounts there would be no changes to the legislation. Again this appears to be a sensible proposal, but the key point is what is defined as a small quantity of black powder. The consultation document indicates that the police would like it to be 1.5kg and the 'shooting organisations' would like it to be 5kg or more.

A number of issues still need to be clarified such as how this relates to the RCA document and what happens if people share a BP store (e.g. husband and wife) but the MLAGB will be raising these points with the HSC.

As part of the official response by the MLAGB to this consultation exercise we will be commenting on what level would be sensible to set this threshold based on the needs of our members. As part of the development of our response we need to know broadly what quantities of BP are being held by individual members and by members of clubs that are affiliated to the MLAGB

We would like to hear the views of people in MLAGB Branches and clubs affiliated to the MLAGB, as well as individual members.

This is where your views are important:-

Question for MLAGB individual members:

How much powder would you need to be permitted to store to allow you to change to the proposed system without the explosives certificate?

Please will individual members send responses to the above question by emailing Sandy Robertson at mlagb.consult@freeuk.com

Questions for Branches and Affiliated Clubs:

We need to get a feeling for the amount of powder that will be used. The question we need to answer is:- How much powder would your members need to be permitted to store to allow you to change to the proposed system without the explosives certificate?

Please could you fill in the following table, putting the numbers of people who would fall into the categories shown. When you have finished, the numbers entered should add up to the total number of black powder shooters in your club.

If you cannot get to talk to all your Black powder shooters please can you give us an estimate. We do need a response as soon as possible and definitely before the New Year as we need to analyse the responses quickly in order to prepare a response.

Please send responses (and any brief comments) to the above questions by submitting the form or emailing Sandy Robertson at mlagb.consult@freeuk.com

Please feel free to send individual or club responses to the HSE, details at:
www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd214.htm

Sandy Robertson