Being safe is important, acting in a responsible manner is essential and not taking unnecessary risks is advisable. Three very basic points, which should stand the majority in good stead as they progress through life. Maybe I am generalising but surely the majority of the UK
Perhaps it is just me but is all the fuss about Health & Safety (H&S) really worthwhile?!
Before I start my argument against H&S I would like to explain that I do agree that anyone seen not to be acting in a safe manner should be stopped (and possibly fined or worse if need be). Similarly I do accept and understand the vital need for certain H&S laws to govern areas such as crowd control, access / egress of stadium and large building / construction projects. Disasters such as Hillsborough, Bradford or The Big Blue Crane highlight what happens when organisations and / or individuals ignore the issue of safety. Health & Safety is important and has a vital role to play in the successful running of events – however it has got out of hand.
What disasters, such as the ones mentioned above, have done is – quite rightly – bring to the attention of those in power of gaping holes in the H&S infrastructures that were (and sadly still are in some locations – especially in places such as India and South America) present. Thankfully the attention has, for the most part, resulted in changes being made that has ensured nothing along those lines happens again. That’s the hugely positive impact; however on the negative side it has also resulted in industries where H&S has not been a major issue having to start adhering to frankly ridiculous rules.
Connect Events specialise in the operational management of events ranging from 20 person breakfasts to, well any size to be honest. Some of the information that we, and other event organisers / agencies, have to provide for each and every event – regardless of size – is quite amazing…and I know it is not just us. Risk assessments for staff travel, detailed plans of what (exactly) is arriving when, numbers of staff on site, insurance declarations for £10m for an event of 100 people in a hotel, signed Insurance declarations for sponsors that are using a simple pop-up system and trained NEBOSH staff on site to sign off ‘complex’ structures. By complex I mean a stand that is not just a pop up – should that really need signing off by a trained individual?!
Not only is it not (well it should not be) needed but it adds to the cost and time of organising an event for all (client, organiser, supplier and sponsors) involved. At a recent event we had to organise for one of our clients a whole new team to dismantle the stand owing to the fact that the supplier we had in place refused to do it, as their staff would need to work at height when not trained to do so. I am not annoyed with the supplier who said no; after all they are governed by the Work at Height Regulations and if they had made their staff complete the breakdown they were running of the risk of being fined / sued should something have happened. Oh, I forgot to mention the working at ‘height’ was 6ft 3” off the floor and required a step ladder – hardly dangerous! To me, this sort of incident just demonstrates how mad the world of H&S has become – sadly it will only get worse as we become more ‘Americanised.’
My brother’s company – in the Civil Engineering industry – is a prime example of how the influx of American views has greatly affected how the company operates. Under its former British ownership they staff had motivational days involving go-karting, were allowed to drive to all meetings and could travel without filling in documents. Since the American takeover they are no longer allowed to go go-karting due to it being too dangerous, they have to use public transport on all journeys (and fill in a risk assessment) and, probably worst of all, they have a code of safety at work, which requires them to hold the handrail when walking downstairs (and they get reprimanded if they do not). I appreciate American companies have been burnt (pun-intended) in the past by cases such as the McDonalds serving coffee that is too hot but this is no reason to implement such restrictive rules.
We, in Britain are not innocent in the existence of frankly stupid rules – one that springs to mind is the clearing of ice from a path you / your company owns (basically if you don’t you can’t be sued if someone slips; if you do and someone slips you can – not quite that black & white but not far off). I’ve gone slightly off course but my point remains, the amount of H&S within all walks of life (both work and social) is getting out of hand.
Back to events – if Connect Events were organising a massive festival, i.e. V-Festival, Glastonbury or similar then of course paramount to the planning would be the H&S aspects, such as correct stewarding, maximum amount of people that will safely fit into the space available, access / egress routes and so on. I would expect other organiser’s to do the same, and (at the risk of ridicule) I believe they should be trusted to do so. There should definitely be documentation (risk assessments, insurance declarations, method statements, etc) that is a legal requirement for all involved where events above a certain size are concerned, but that is where it should end.
For this to be viable though companies also need to be protected to a greater extent. Currently if, for example, someone falls at your event and hurts themselves they can sue and will, almost all of the time, win (either out of or in court) the case. It should not be that black and white. Individuals attending events need to be made more aware of their responsibilities – if it is raining at a festival the ground may become slippy underfoot so wear appropriate footwear!
With the risk of repeating myself there is a great need for Health & Safety within all industries, not just events. There is also a need (and rightly a legal requirement) for all companies involved in the running of events to have some level of public liability (or similar) insurance. Health & Safety is important. However, it is starting to become a dominant force in the organisation of events and not in a positive sense. It should not be (and does not need to be) as restrictive and time consuming as it is proving to be time and again – maybe it is warranted on the larger ones, i.e. World Cup, Olympics, Motor Show, etc (I would love to see the London 2012 risk assessment) but it is certainly not on the majority of events.
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