Pipe-lines Act 1962

23Power of the Minister to impose requirements with respect to examination, repair, and c, of pipe-lines

(1)In the case of any pipe-line, (the Minister may at any time by notice served on the owner thereof impose such requirements with respect to all or any of the following matters as he thinks it expedient to impose in the interests of safety, namely.—

(a)the examination, repair, maintenance, adjustment and testing of the line ;

(b)the inspection of the route taken by the line.

(2)If at any time the Minister is satisfied with respect to a pipe-line or a length of a pipe-line that, in the interests of safety, the unrestricted use of the line or length ought no longer to be permitted, he may by notice served on the owner of the line—

(a)require that the line shall be so operated that the pressure of its contents, or, as the case may be, the pressure of the contents of that length of it, will at no point exceed such number of pounds per square inch as may be specified in the notice ; or

(b)prohibit the use (either absolutely or for the conveyance of any thing other than a thing of a particular kind specified in the notice or a thing of a class so specified) of the line or, as the case may be, that length of it, until there have been effected thereto such alterations as may be so specified, being alterations as to which the Minister is satisfied that the effecting thereof will suffice to permit of the resumption of the use of the line or length without restriction.

(3)Subsection (2) of section twenty of this Act shall, with the substitution, for references to subsection (1) of that section, of references to the foregoing provisions of this section, have effect for the purposes of this section as it has effect for the purposes of that section.

(4)In the event of a failure, in relation to a pipe-line or a length of a pipe-line, to comply with a requirement or prohibition imposed by a notice served under the foregoing provisions of this section, the owner of the line shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a)on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both a fine and such imprisonment.

(5)Where, in consequence of the effecting of alterations to a pipe-line or a length of a pipe-line in consequence of the service of a notice under subsection (2) of this section a person, other than the person on whom the notice was served, suffers loss by reason of damage to, or disturbance in the enjoyment of, any land or chattels, he shall be entitled to compensation in respect of that loss from the person on whom the notice was served.