SOCIAL SECURITY Citation, commencement and interpretation 1 1 These Regulations may be cited as the Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 and shall come into operation on 22nd September 2003. 2 The Interpretation Act 1978 shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament. Amendment of the Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations 2 1 The Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1986 shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3) of this regulation. 2 For regulation 27 (period to be covered by assessment of disablement in respect of occupational deafness) there shall be substituted the following regulation – 27 Paragraph 6(1) and (2) of Schedule 6 to the Contributions and Benefits Act shall be modified so that in respect of occupational deafness, the period to be taken into account by an assessment of the extent of a claimant’s disablement shall be the remainder of the claimant’s life. . 3 In Part I of Schedule 1 (list of prescribed diseases and the occupations for which they are prescribed), in the entry relating to prescribed disease A10 for the entry in the second column (occupation) there shall be substituted – The use of, or work wholly or mainly in the immediate vicinity of the use of, a – band saw, circular saw or cutting disc to cut metal in the metal founding or forging industries, circular saw to cut products in the manufacture of steel, powered (other than hand powered) grinding tool on metal (other than sheet metal or plate metal), pneumatic percussive tool on metal, pressurised air arc tool to gouge metal, burner or torch to cut or dress steel based products, skid transfer bank, knock out and shake out grid in a foundry, machine (other than a power press machine) to forge metal including a machine used to drop stamp metal by means of closed or open dies or drop hammers, machine to cut or shape or clean metal nails, or plasma spray gun to spray molten metal; pneumatic percussive tool:– to drill rock in a quarry, on stone in a quarry works, underground, for mining coal, for sinking a shaft, or for tunnelling in civil engineering works; vibrating metal moulding box in the concrete products industry, or circular saw to cut concrete masonry blocks; machine in the manufacture of textiles for:– weaving man-made or natural fibres (including mineral fibres), high speed false twisting of fibres, or the mechanical cleaning of bobbins; multi-cutter moulding machine on wood, planing machine on wood, automatic or semi-automatic lathe on wood, multiple cross-cut machine on wood, automatic shaping machine on wood, double-end tenoning machine on wood, vertical spindle moulding machine (including a high speed routing machine) on wood, edge banding machine on wood, band-sawing machine (with a blade width of not less than 75 millimetres) on wood, circular sawing machine on wood including one operated by moving the blade towards the material being cut, or chain saw on wood; jet of water (or a mixture of water and abrasive material) at a pressure above 680 bar, or jet channelling process to burn stone in a quarry; machine in a ship’s engine room, or gas turbine for:– performance testing on a test bed, installation testing of a replacement engine in an aircraft, or acceptance testing of an Armed Service fixed wing combat aircraft; machine in the manufacture of glass containers or hollow ware for:– automatic moulding, automatic blow moulding, or automatic glass pressing and forming; spinning machine using compressed air to produce glass wool or mineral wool; continuous glass toughening furnace; firearm by a police firearms training officer; or shot-blaster to carry abrasives in air for cleaning. . Transitional Provision 3 1 Regulation 2(3) shall not apply to a period of assessment which relates to a claim which is made before the commencement date. 2 A provisional assessment of the extent of a claimant’s disablement due to occupational deafness, which is in force immediately before the commencement date, shall, from the commencement date, have effect for the remainder of the claimant’s life. 3 For the purposes of this regulation – a “commencement date” means the date on which these Regulations come into operation; and b the date on which a claim is made is the date on which the claim is made or treated as made in accordance with the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 . Revocations 4 The Regulations specified in column (1) of the Schedule are hereby revoked to the extent mentioned in column (3). Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department for Social Development on 27th August 2003. D. A. Baker Senior Officer of the Department for Social Development