One for Diesel Dave on ADR regs.
On ADR regs as part of your equipment you must have a broom & shovel for spillages as part of your "spill kit"etc.
Do the regs state categorically or not that the shovel must be of a material that will not cause a spark when in use I.E. plastic as opposed to steel?
I will PM you later Dave with an explanation.
Many thanks
I’M SURE HE WILL BE ALONG SOON 
NEJ:
One for Diesel Dave on ADR regs.On ADR regs as part of your equipment you must have a broom & shovel for spillages as part of your "spill kit"etc.
Do the regs state categorically or not that the shovel must be of a material that will not cause a spark when in use I.E. plastic as opposed to steel?
Yes it does,otherwise if you are dealing with anything flammable you dont want to cause a spark,do you 
most people say though if something does spill,cordon the area off etc and get the ■■■■ out of it.
NEJ:
One for Diesel Dave on ADR regs.On ADR regs as part of your equipment you must have a broom & shovel for spillages as part of your "spill kit"etc.
Do the regs state categorically or not that the shovel must be of a material that will not cause a spark when in use I.E. plastic as opposed to steel?
The short answer to that is “NO” the Regs don’t state that specifically.
However, many of the requirements are to be taken from the ‘general’ part of the Regs.
Written in short form, CDG 2007 Reg.63(5) [UK Regs.] requires the owner of the vehicle to comply with ADR 2007 8.1.5(c) which says:
in ADR 8.1.5(c) is:
8.1.5 Miscellaneous equipment
Every transport unit carrying dangerous goods shall be equipped with:
(c) The personal protection [PPE] and the equipment necessary … … referred to in the instructions in writing
The vehicle driver also has some responsibility in this regard too.
So the definitive answer to the question can only come from consulting the Instructions In Writing (IIW) [AKA Tremcard] for the particular substance(s) being carried.
Eg, if the IIW says “plastic shovel” then a plastic shovel it must be and you’d get a PG9 if you were checked and had a metal shovel instead.
The same applies with a metal shovel, if the IIW says “metal shovel” then a metal shovel it must be.
Having said that, it’s highly likely that a plastic shovel would be acceptable where the IIW is non-specific, given the spark risk for flammables as pointed out by bikemonkey.
To extend that point slightly, a metal shovel also wouldn’t be much good for dealing with quite a few corrosives that come to mind.
Here is a pic of acceptable intervention equipment on a tanker that carries Nitric Acid:
(Note the plastic shovel.)
Here’s a different tanker, but I can’t remember what this one carries. 
In this case, the shovel is metal.
I hope this general advice helps, but I’ll wait for your PM in case that changes things.
Obviously no one has ever seen me using a shovel 
sparks indeed!
I only lean on it
The FIRM i WORK FOR
carrys ""HOT liquids as well as
lower temperture liquids,so we have
two types of container one of metal
and one of plastic, as for shovels
you will see differant types from
steel,aluminium, plastic, it will all
depend on what your carrying and
what is in the written instruction ,