Russia: Draft law aims to introduce continuous remote system of industrial safety monitoring for major hazard facilities

If the draft is adopted, it would introduce the system of remote industrial safety monitoring. This system will consist of a complex of software and hardware, as well as specialized technical means that ensure the continuous receipt, processing and transmission of real time information on the values ​​of the parameters of technological processes and processes to ensure the operation of a hazardous production facility, its safety, the status of emergency protection systems and their operation, the condition of those as well as the registration of accidents and incidents at a hazardous production facility. In this case, the object of remote monitoring will be a hazardous industrial facility equipped with a remote system for industrial safety monitoring.

The draft law proposes to equip, as of 1 January 2020 class I and II hazardous industrial facilities (i.e. those representing the highest hazard) with remote industrial safety monitoring systems.

If operating organisations so decide, remote monitoring systems may be installed on class III and IV industrial facilities. Operating organizations would be invited to equip hazardous industrial  facilities with remote monitoring systems of industrial safety before the set deadline.

For organizations implementing the system of remote industrial safety monitoring, the draft law would apply the provisions aimed at reducing the administrative burden by:

  • cancellation of scheduled industrial safety inspections;
  • removal of the obligation to provide information on production self-monitoring data;
  • the introduction of the possibility of applying a safety justification when implementing a system of remote industrial safety monitoring.