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What it regulates
Sets safety conditions for different forms of diving. This entry covers requirements affecting professional work: planning, dive supervision, personnel, equipment and emergency response.
Who it applies to
Activities in maritime waters under Spanish sovereignty, sovereign rights or jurisdiction. Relevant general rules and professional-diving provisions are selected; military, police and public-service diving have the specific regimes in Article 1. The occupational selection also includes recreational-diving guides and instructors, extraction diving and scientific diving when performed as work, together with relevant maritime supervision rules. References to recreational rules are used only where the Decree itself makes them applicable to these occupational activities.
Key provisions
Professional divers and the other listed occupational groups must follow the applicable medical fitness examination rules.
Article 8Organisations must ensure equipment complies with legislation and manufacturer recommendations, as well as the required civil liability cover.
Article 10The company appoints a qualified diving supervisor in writing to assess, plan, supervise and control the operation on site and approve the risk-based dive plan.
Article 23Minimum staffing depends on the technique and operating conditions; the plan may increase it following assessment. Article 28 specifically regulates professional scuba diving.
Article 28Hyperbaric chamber availability is governed by Article 22 conditions and must be built into operational preparation.
Article 22Recreational diving guides and instructors have specific occupational exposure limits: 180 minutes per day, including successive dives; this may rise to 300 minutes only if the entire day’s diving remains shallower than 10 metres.
Article 20For scientific diving undertaken as work, Article 50 requires supervision and a dive plan and sets exposure limits. Professional rules apply when its depth, decompression or surface-access conditions are exceeded; auxiliary staff outside the scientific team are always subject to professional rules, subject to the specific military situations.
Article 50The live marine resource extraction regime applies down to 15 metres and without planned decompression. Beyond those limits, professional-diving safety rules apply.
Article 51Extractive diving requires a qualified team leader appointed in writing to assess, plan, supervise and control the operation on site and approve the dive plan.
Article 53Extraction requires weather and visibility allowing safe work and diver recovery. Night dives, confined spaces, obstructed direct ascent and contaminated water are prohibited; only tools permitted by Article 54 may be used.
Article 54In extraction, maximum daily exposure is 180 minutes, including successive dives. Extension to 300 minutes requires remaining shallower than 10 metres throughout the working day.
Article 55Extractive-diving staffing depends on technique and assessment. Article 57 governs scuba diving and Article 59 surface-supplied diving; the latter incorporates the 2025 amendment and makes any permitted reduction conditional on the team leader’s assessment.
Article 59Extraction work must have normobaric oxygen available at the workplace for divers who need it. Minimum equipment is set by Articles 58 and 60 and section 3 of Annex III according to technique.
Article 56Professional guiding or instruction, professional diving, extraction and scientific diving are notified to the maritime authority under Article 61 and Annex IV. Current rules require notification on initial establishment and when data change, not for each dive.
Article 61New or adapted techniques do not allow unrestricted departure from safety rules: an exception requires reasoned authorisation by the maritime authority. Articles 62–64 govern inspection, precautionary suspension and penalties.
Article 65History and versions
Initial publication: 26/06/2020 · Initial entry into force: 01/07/2020
BOE-A-2020-6745Published on 26 June 2020 and effective from 1 July 2020. Royal Decree 1188/2025 amends Articles 9, 18, 28, 59, 61 and 65, the first transitional provision and Annex III. The latest published wording is dated 30 December 2025. Within this expanded scope, Royal Decree 1188/2025 amends Article 59 on extraction staffing, Article 61 on activity notification and Article 65 on exceptions. The breath-hold extraction transition in the fourth transitional provision retains its original wording.
Royal Decree 1188/2025: diving safety reform distinguishing diving categories and changing the minimum-staffing exception for professional scuba diving.
BOE-A-2025-27010Text versions of the selected OSH provisions
Transitional provisions and application notes
The legislation also covers recreational, sports and scientific diving. Rules specific to one category do not automatically apply to professional work.
Article 1Royal Decree 1188/2025 amended, among other provisions, Article 28.2. Consult the current wording rather than reproducing the former limit as current; the Decree also does not replace assessment required by the OSH Prevention Act.
Article 28The prohibition of breath-hold extraction must be read with the fourth transitional provision: it provides ten years from entry into force on 1 July 2020, subject to a buddy pair, a 7-metre limit and specified equipment. The 2025 update does not restart that period. This extraction transition is not general permission for professional breath-hold diving.
Transitional provision fourthDo not present Article 59’s staffing-reduction exception as automatic or transfer it to Article 57 or professional diving under Article 28. Each category and technique retains its own conditions.
Article 59Scientific activity is not necessarily employment in every case. This entry includes its OSH relevance where it is performed as work and distinguishes guide and instructor requirements from rules for recreational participants.
Article 50For inland waters, lakes, reservoirs or similar facilities, the fourth additional provision refers to the competent authority’s decision. The maritime regime does not apply automatically merely because diving is undertaken for work.
Additional provision fourth
Official BOE legal relationships
This record covers the history of the selected occupational safety and health provisions. The official analysis also provides the relationships affecting other subjects in the legislation.
Official BOE legal relationships
