Rostechnadzor summarized the results of the legislation activity for the first half-year

29.07.2013 In the first half-year period of 2013 the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service of Russia (Rostechnadzor) continued improvement of the legal and regulatory framework, relief of excessive state regulation and upgrading of the regulatory efficiency, which a vital for reducing administrative barriers and exclusion of corruption risks in the activity of the Service.

As a result, the Federal Law of 04.03.2013 No.22-FZ “About Amendments to the Federal Law “About Industrial Safety of Hazardous Production Facilities”, to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation and about Repeal of Subitem 114 Item 1 Article 333.33 Part 2 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation”. In the part of reducing of burden onto business, the mentioned Federal Law envisages as follows:

1) to exclude scheduled inspections with regard to meeting the industrial safety requirements in relation to hazardous production facilities of low hazard (class IV), to reduce the number of the mentioned inspections with regard to hazardous production facilities of medium hazard (class III);
2) to introduce notification procedure for the start of operation of such hazardous production facilities;
3) to exclude the Rostechnadzor function on issue of permits for using technical devices at hazardous production facilities;
4) to exclude the requirements to conduct the industrial safety review for overhaul documentation of a hazardous production facility;
5) to reduce the number of triggers for amending the industrial safety declaration;
6) to provide possibility for design and operation of hazardous production facilities on the ground of individual requirements specified by the designer with the account of specifics of the applied innovative technologies.

In order to implement the provisions of the Federal Law No.22-FZ, a number of Decrees of the RF Government developed by Rostechnadzor were approved, namely: No.486 of 10.06.2013 “About Amendments to the Decree of the RF Government of November 24, 1998 No.1371”, No.492 of 10.06.2013 “About Licensing of Operation of Explosive and Chemically Hazardous Production Facilities of Hazard Classes I, II, and III”, No.526 of 21.06.2013 “About Amendments to and Repeal of Some Acts of the RF Government”, No.536 of 26.06.2013 “About Requirements to Documentation for Industrial Safety Management Systems”. A draft decree was submitted to the Government “About Action Plan for Localization and Elimination of Consequences of an Accident at Hazardous Production Facilities”.

In order to develop novations introduced by the Federal Law No.22-FZ, the Federal Law of 02.07.2013 No.186-FZ “About Amendments to the Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in the Part of Industrial Safety Review and Clarification of Certain Powers of the State Supervision Bodies in Judicial Proceedings for Administrative Violation Cases” was adopted. The Federal Law envisages the exclusion of one of the most corruptive functions of Rostechnadzor that is the approval of findings of the industrial safety review. Herewith, the Federal Law No.186-FZ envisages the establishment of the special administrative and criminal responsibility for issuing deliberately false conclusions in the field of industrial safety, and also introduces a number of requirements in support of an independent review.

Updating of the whole massif of agency-level acts in the field of industrial safety is in process. Preparation of 22 draft Federal Safety Regulations in the field of industrial safety, establishing safety requirements for certain types of hazardous production facilities with the account of the amended legislation and state-of-the-art in technologies, shall be completed by November.

In the field of mining supervision the draft Law “About Amendments to the Law of the Russian Federation “About Subsurface Resources” was developed to specify the procedure of preparation and reconciliation of mining activity development plans, as well as drawing up of documents certifying the clarified boundaries of property. The draft Law was adopted in the first reading by the State Duma on 03.07.2013.

In the field of atomic energy use 2 Federal Laws were adopted (No.39-FZ of 05.04.2013 and No.159-FZ of 02.07.2013) to detail the regulation of administrative procedures for licensing. “In 2013 we adopted several drafts developed by Rostechnadzor in total: 4 Federal Laws, 8 Decrees of the RF Government, and 35 agency-level regulatory legal acts”, noted Dmitriy Yakovlev, Deputy Head of Rostechnadzor Legal Department.

In particular, the Decree of the RF Government of 29.03.2013 No.280 approves the new “Provision on licensing of activities in the field of atomic energy use”. The Provision specifies the regulations of the Federal Law of 30.11.2011 No.347-FZ concerning licensing, as well as a number of proposals and recommendations of the IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission in the Russian Federation held in 2009.

The Decree of the RF Government of 23.04.2013 No.362 stipulates the specifics of technical regulation in the field of atomic energy use. The Decree specifies the key principle for safety regulation in atomic energy use that is the unconditioned nuclear and radiation safety priority (the requirements to the products shall not contradict to the safety requirements to nuclear facilities and activities in the field of atomic energy use).

The Decree of the RF Government of 30.04.2013 No.387 stipulates the procedure for a legal entity assignment to a scientific and technical support organization (TSO) for the authorized state safety regulatory body in atomic energy use. A draft Federal Law “About Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Related to Safety of Unowned Hydraulic Engineering Structures” was developed by Rostechnadzor in the field of safety of hydraulic engineering structures. The draft Law was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading on 13.03.2013.

Public hearings are being held with regard to two draft Decrees of the RF Government prepared by Rostechnadzor: “About Preservation and Demolition (Dismantling) Procedure for Hydraulic Engineering Structures” and “About Classifying of Hydraulic Engineering Structures”.

The Decree of the RF Government of 20.07.2013 No.610 for the first time regulates the procedure for the federal state power engineering supervision, and determines the subject to inspections.

Underway is the updating process for Rostechnadzor administrative regulations, also for the purposes to solve problems raised in the Decree of the RF President of May 7, 2012 No.601 “About Major Directions for to Improve the State Management System”.

Information source: official website of Rostechnadzor