Act 1974 was administered on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by the Petroleum Engineering Division of the Department of Energy.

[2] By the late 1970s it was recognised that there was a potential conflict of interest between the roles within the Department of Energy as they applied offshore.

[4] Following the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, the 106 recommendations of the Public Inquiry by Lord Cullen proposed fundamental changes to the regulation of offshore safety.

A number of key offshore regulations support the aims of the 1992 Act, these were enacted as Statutory Instruments.

It was replaced in 1996 with a goal-setting verification scheme by the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction etc) Regulations 1996.