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Youth adventure — safety by inspection: next steps
Introduction
On behalf of itself and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales, the Department for Education and Skills consulted in January-April 2003 on the future of the Adventure Activities Licensing Regime. We sent our consultation document to a wide range of providers and users of adventure activities in England, Scotland and Wales. We received 378 responses.
Current arrangements
The Government currently regulates climbing, caving, remote trekking and non-powered waterborne activity where these are provided commercially or by a local authority to young people aged under 18. The relevant law is the Activity Centres (Young Persons' Safety) Act 1995 and the associated Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 1996. Other providers, whilst out of scope of the Licensing Regulations, are within scope of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. These require all employers to ensure, by means of risk assessment, the safety of all those people whom their undertakings affect. Examples of non-licensable bodies include schools providing to their own pupils (on their employer's behalf), voluntary bodies providing to their members, and the Armed Services when providing to their own personnel or civilians.
The Department for Education and Skills reflects and promotes good practice in the English non-licensable sector by means of good practice guidance. (The Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales have produced or will produce comparable guidance.) We based this guidance on the requirement to assess risk and the good practice of monitoring: Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits (HASPEV) 1998; Health & Safety: Responsibilities and Powers 2001; Supplement to HASPEV comprising Standards for LEAs in Overseeing Educational Visits, Standards for Adventure and A Handbook for Group Leaders 2002; and Group Safety at Water Margins with CCPR 2003.
Consultation responses
The majority of respondents (over 60%) expressed the view that the existing system of licensing, managed by the cross-border Adventure Activities Licensing Authority, should remain in place as the industry standard. Teachers in particular found the existing scheme valuable when making choices about adventure provision.
A large majority of respondents were against the proposal that 'the principles of the Scheme should be continued in a non-statutory form.'
Opinion was divided over complementing the present Regime with a parallel scheme of non-statutory accreditation covering those bodies and those activities that are not licensable.
Overall, most respondents welcomed the opportunity to comment on the proposals. There was a view expressed that the current Regime had done much to raise safety awareness within the adventure activities industry. Respondents also noted the societal concerns that underlay licensing and that the current scheme had improved public perception of the adventure activities industry.
Conclusions
If the Government were to act in accordance with the volume of consultation responses, the outcome would be to maintain the status quo or do very little to change it. However, although it is difficult to give a due weighting to each response, the Government has paid particular heed to the views of those bodies which not only favoured the idea of a non-mandatory scheme but indicated their preparedness to take an active role in establishing one.
Sensitive both to overwhelming majority views and to significant minority views as disclosed by consultation, the Government therefore has decided to maintain the Licensing Regime for a further three years and to consider minor amendments that will benefit both providers and users of adventure activity facilities. Despite there being no overall majority for concrete proposals for a complementary scheme, the Department has registered the wishes of a significant number of national representative bodies and will support them as they seek the establishment of an industry-wide system of non-regulatory accreditation to be managed by or for the industry. The Government would, in time, review the future of the current statutory Regime in the context of any successful complementary accreditation scheme or schemes having been established.
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