Update to Coal Authority’s Permit Terms and Conditions

August 19, 2024

Following comments made during the Permitting Stakeholder Engagements held by Coal Authority, British Drilling Association and Health and Safety Executive in October last year and March this year, the Coal Authority has now updated its Permit Terms and conditions in order to address concerns on unlimited indemnity. Recognising changes within the market relating to previous position of requesting unlimited indemnities, the Coal Authority has now reviewed their Permit Terms and Conditions and made the following updates:

They have now added definitions for Designer and Contractor and these now have the same definitions as the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

They have made the following amendments:

• Amended clause 1 to cap the indemnity at £10 million, and revised the wording to limit the extent of the indemnity in order to ensure that any claims made are reasonable and exclude costs for damages that are not related to Permit Holder’s actions or that of its contractors and Agents,
• Amended clause 6 to provide clarify that insurance must be sufficient
• Amended condition 12 to add a requirement for permit certificates to be kept on site to help with permit compliance.

Other minor amendments have been made to conditions 3,4,5,7 and 13. These minor amendments align the conditions to definitions in Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and the major changes explained above.

They have updated the guidance in their frequently asked questions to explain the changes they have made. Although they have capped the indemnity to £10million, they do not ask insurance to be £10million for small scale operations. They require insurance to be adequate to provide the Permit holder with sufficient funds to furnish any likely claim on the indemnity by the Coal Authority.

As they have amended clauses on insurance to require insurance to be sufficient, we have defined Non-commercial Public Bodies and regulated statutory or public utility entities that follow HM Treasury guidelines for insurance purposes to be considered as meeting our insurance requirements.

The updated permit terms and conditions are now published at: Coal mining permit terms and conditions – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The updated guidance is now published at: What is a permit and how to get one? – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)