Factories Act
(Chapter 104, Sections 68 and 102)
Factories (Shipbuilding and Ship-repairing) Regulations
Rg 11
G.N. No. S 234/1994

REVISED EDITION 1999
(1st July 1999)
[1st November 1994]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Citation
1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Factories (Shipbuilding and Ship-repairing) Regulations.
Definitions
2.  In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —
“approved” means approved by the Chief Inspector in writing;
“auditor” means a safety auditor approved by the Chief Inspector;
“base plate”, in relation to a metal scaffold, means a plate for distributing the load from a standard;
“bay”, in relation to a scaffold, means that portion of the scaffold between horizontal or vertical supports (whether standards or supports from which the portion is suspended) which are adjacent longitudinally;
“bracing” means a member incorporated diagonally in a scaffold for stability;
“contract of service” includes an apprenticeship agreement;
“contractor” means a person who has entered into a contract for the purpose of carrying out any work to which these Regulations apply and includes a main contractor and a sub-contractor;
“designated person” means a competent person appointed by an employer to carry out any supervision or inspection or to perform any task or duty prescribed by these Regulations;
“employee” means a person who has entered into a contract of service with an employer;
“employee’s lift” means a powered car operating in guides and used primarily to carry employees in a substantially vertical direction;
“employer” means any person who employs another person under a contract of service to carry out any work to which these Regulations apply;
“frame or modular scaffold” means a scaffold manufactured in such a way that the geometry of the scaffold is pre-determined and the relative spacings of the principal members are fixed;
“guardrail” means a horizontal rail secured to uprights and erected along the exposed side of scaffolds, floor openings, runways or gangways to prevent persons from falling;
“hanging scaffold” means a scaffold suspended by means of a lifting gear, ropes, chains or rigid members and not provided with means of raising or lowering by a lifting appliance or similar device;
“hazardous work” means any work that is likely to endanger the life of any person in a shipyard or on board a ship in a harbour and includes any type of work which is specified by the Chief Inspector in writing as hazardous work;
“hot-work” means riveting, welding, flame cutting or burning and includes any other work involving the use or generation of heat or the production of sparks;
“independent tied scaffold” means a scaffold the working platform of which is supported from the base by 2 or more rows of standards and which, apart from the necessary ties, stands completely free of any structure;
“ledger” means a member spanning horizontally and tying scaffolding longitudinally and which acts as a support for putlogs or transoms;
“lift”, in relation to any scaffold, means the vertical distance between the base of the scaffold and the first ledger or level at which a platform is constructed or the vertical distance between any 2 consecutive ledgers;
“material handling equipment” includes cranes, hoists, winches, skips, cages and buckets;
“plant or equipment” includes any plant, equipment, gear, machinery, apparatus or appliance, or any part thereof;
“professional engineer” means a person registered as a professional engineer under the Professional Engineers Act (Cap. 253).
“putlog” means a horizontal member on which the board, plank or decking of a working platform is laid;
“reveal tie” means the assembly of a tie tube and a fitting used for tightening a tube between 2 opposing surfaces;
“right angle coupler” means a coupler, other than a swivel or putlog coupler, used for connecting tubes at right angles;
“safety assessor” means a safety assessor appointed under regulation 35(3);
“safety supervisor” means a safety supervisor appointed under regulation 20;
“scaffold” means —
(a)any temporarily provided structure on or from which persons perform any work to which these Regulations apply or any work in connection therewith; and
(b)any temporarily provided structure which enables persons to obtain access to, or which enables materials to be taken to, any place at which such work is being performed,
and includes any working platform, gangway, run, ladder or step-ladder (other than an independent ladder or step-ladder which does not form part of such a structure) together with any guardrail, toe board or other safeguards and all fixtures and fittings, but does not include a lifting appliance, a lifting machine or a structure used merely to support such an appliance or such a machine or to support any other plant or equipment;
“shipyard” includes any dry or wet dock, wharf, jetty and quay, and the precincts thereof;
“ship repair manager” means a ship repair manager appointed under regulation 26;
“ship’s safety co-ordinator” means a ship’s safety co-ordinator appointed under regulation 21;
“sole plate” means a member used to distribute the load from the base plate of a scaffold to the supporting surface;
“standard” means a member used as a vertical support or column in the construction of a scaffold which transmits a load to the ground or any other solid construction;
“suspended scaffold” means a scaffold suspended by means of ropes or chains and capable of being raised or lowered but does not include a boatswain’s chair or any other similar appliance;
“swivel coupler” means a coupler for connecting 2 tubes at any angle other than a right angle;
“tie” means an assembly used to connect a scaffold to a rigid anchorage;
“toe board” means a member fastened above a working platform, access landing, accessway, wheelbarrow run, ramp or other platform to prevent persons and materials from falling;
“transom” means a member in an independent tie scaffold which is placed horizontally and used to tie transversely one ledger to another or one standard to another;
“trestle scaffold” includes a scaffold in which the supports for the platform are any of the following which are self-supporting, that is to say, split heads, folding stepladders, tripods or movable contrivances similar to any of the foregoing;
“tubular scaffold” means a scaffold constructed from tubes and couplers;
“working platform” means a platform which is used to support persons or materials and includes a working stage.
Application
3.—(1)  These Regulations shall apply to any work carried out in a shipyard or on board a ship in a harbour in connection with the construction, re-construction, repair, refitting, painting, finishing or breaking up a ship, or the scaling, scurfing or cleaning of boilers (including combustion chambers and smoke boxes) in a ship, or the cleaning of any tank, bilges or holds in a ship.
(2)  Where the work to be carried out in a shipyard —
(a)consists only of minor adjustments of equipment, cleaning, washing or running repairs; and
(b)does not involve hot-work or spray painting,
the Chief Inspector may, subject to such conditions as he may specify, exempt any person carrying out the work from the application of any provision of these Regulations.
(3)  The provisions of these Regulations shall be in addition to and not in substitution for or in diminution of the other requirements under the Act.
Obligations
4.—(1)  It shall be the duty of every occupier, contractor or employer —
(a)to comply with such of the requirements of these Regulations as affect him or any other person employed by him; and
(b)to comply with such of the requirements of these Regulations as relate to any work performed or about to be performed by him.
(2)  It shall be the duty of every occupier, contractor or employer who —
(a)erects or alters any scaffold to comply with such of the requirements of these Regulations as relate to the erection or alteration of scaffolds having regard to the purpose or purposes for which the scaffold is designed at the time of erection or alteration; or
(b)erects, installs, works or uses any plant or equipment to which any of these Regulations applies, to erect, install, work or use such plant or equipment in a manner which complies with such regulation.
(3)  Where an occupier or contractor appoints any artisan, tradesman or other person to carry out any work to which these Regulations apply under a contract for service, it shall be the duty of the occupier or contractor to comply with such of the requirements of these Regulations as affect that artisan, tradesman or other person.
(4)  For the purpose of paragraph (3), any reference in these Regulations to an employee shall include a reference to such artisan, tradesman or other person and the occupier or contractor shall be deemed to be his employer.
(5)  It shall be the duty of every employee —
(a)to comply with such of the requirements of these Regulations which apply to any work being carried out by him;
(b)to refrain from doing any act which would be in contravention of these Regulations; and
(c)to co-operate with the occupier, contractor or employer who employs him in complying with these Regulations.
(6)  The master, owner, agent or crew of a ship, who undertakes or carries out any work to which these Regulations apply, or any other person undertaking such work on behalf of such owner, agent, master or crew, shall comply with such of these Regulations as affect him.
(7)  No occupier, contractor or employer, or owner, agent or master of a ship, shall permit an employee to do anything not in accordance with the generally accepted principles of sound and safe practice.
(8)  No employee shall do anything not in accordance with the generally accepted principles of sound and safe practice.
(9)  No person to whom these Regulations apply shall wilfully do any unsafe act which may cause injury to himself or to others.
Ship repair manager to approve work
4A.  No master, owner, agent or crew of a ship that is in a shipyard shall carry out any work on the ship without the approval of the ship repair manager of the ship.
Equipment brought into shipyard or on board a ship in a harbour
5.  Every occupier of a shipyard, or owner, agent or master of a ship in a harbour, contractor or employer, shall ensure that any equipment used or brought into the shipyard or on board the ship for the purpose of any work to which these Regulations apply is —
(a)of good construction, sound material and adequate strength;
(b)free from patent defects; and
(c)appropriate for the work for which it is to be used.
Notification of work carried out on board a ship in a harbour
6.—(1)  No work relating to the construction, re-construction, repair, refitting, painting, finishing or breaking up of a ship, or the scaling, scurfing or cleaning of boilers (including combustion chambers and smoke boxes) in a ship, or the cleaning of any tank, bilges or holds in a ship shall be carried out on board a ship in a harbour unless the Chief Inspector has been notified by the master, owner or agent of the ship of such work 3 days prior to its commencement.
(2)  For the purposes of paragraph (1), the Chief Inspector may devise and use such forms as he may consider necessary.