HSENI Gas Safety (Management) Regulations Consultation 2025

Overview

Overview

HSE passed The Gas Safety (Management) (Amendment) Regulations in 2023. This consultation relates to HSENI’s plan to amend the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (GSMR) in line with the changes in Great Britain.

 GSMR cover four main areas:

1. the safe management of gas flow through a network, particularly those parts supplying domestic consumers, and a duty to minimise the risk of a gas supply emergency;
2. arrangements for dealing with supply emergencies;
3. arrangements for dealing with reported gas escapes and gas incidents; and
4. gas composition

HSENI is seeking your views on the below set of changes:

1. A new lower Wobbe number (WN) limit
2. To incorporate the HSENI class exemption to remove the Incomplete Combustion Factor (ICF) and the Soot Index (SI) limits in Schedule 3 and introduce a relative density of ≤0.700
3. To incorporate the HSENI class exemption limit of ≤1 mol% for oxygen in gases conveyed at pressures up to 38 barg
4. Clarity that biomethane pipelines are to be considered to be part of the gas network
5. Clarity that co-operation duties apply to operators of liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities
6. For a general duty on the industry to provide a continuously manned telephone service

These changes would enable:

• The adaptation of prescriptive NI regulation for gas composition contained in GSMR Schedule 3 that is restricting the sources of gas sitting outside of current specifications being used in the gas transmission and distribution network 
• A greater diversity of gas resources to be accessed from biogas and across the North Sea including both the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) and the Norwegian sector
• Reduced gas processing, potentially making gas supplies greener and easier to secure and more economically viable
• Regulations to be updated and modernised in order to ensure safety standards are consistently applied across today’s gas network

These changes contribute to wider strategic Executive objectives of security of energy supply and decarbonisation of the energy sector as the UK moves to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Why your views matter

Why your views matter

There are a number of safety and practicality questions which arise when amending legislation such as GSMR, and HSENI wish to gather views from a wide range of interested parties before any legislative changes are made.

The consultation document is linked below. Please read fully before you submit your response. Instructions on how to submit your response and who to contact with any further questions can be found within the document.

The deadline for responses is 14 April 2025. We very much welcome your feedback.