Coventry Event Safety Advisory Group (ESAG) Policy - Print version

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Contents

  1. Brief history [#1]
  2. Introduction [#2]
  3. Aims and objectives [#3]
  4. Fundamental principles [#4]
  5. ESAG strategy [#5]
  6. Limitations [#6]
  7. Event enquiry / approval / monitoring process [#7]
  8. Events that may be subject to SAG process [#8]
  9. Status and conflicts of interests for SAG members [#9]
  10. Core membership and organisational roles and responsibilities [#10]
  11. Non-core (invited) ESAG attendees [#11]
  12. Administration [#12]
  13. Review [#13]

Appendices

Brief history

  1. The recommendation of ‘panels’ made up of local authorities and emergency services was first raised by Lord Wheatley when investigating the 1971 Ibrox disaster. It was re-emphasised following the Hillsborough disaster when Lord Justice Taylor recommended that “to assist the local authorities in exercising its functions, it should set up an advisory group consisting of appropriate members of its own staff, representatives of the police, fire and ambulance service and the building authority”.
  2. Although the formation and retention of a Safety Advisory Group (SAG) is not a legal requirement, their importance is widely recognised by many agencies and bodies including the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (Cabinet Office), the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the College of Policing.
  3. The Emergency Planning College (EPC) has produced The UK Good Practice Guide to Working in Safety Advisory Groups (issued 2015 and revised and republished online in 2019). [Accessible at: It's Here! Free National Guidance | EPC (epcresilience.com) [about:blank] and it is this guidance upon which this policy has been developed.

Introduction

  1. In the planning of events, it has been deemed good practice to emulate the work of sports SAGs in supporting and advising organisers on good practice throughout the industry. Such event related SAGs are often known as ESAGs to prevent confusion with the sports SAGs.
  2. Whilst neither sport nor event SAGs have any statutory powers, the advisory role of sports SAGs to local authorities is acknowledged within the ‘Green Guide’ and the safety certification process for stadiums and regulated stands. No such guidance exists in relation to event SAGs other than that from the EPC referred to above. An abbreviated version of the EPC guidance is now available as a chapter in the Event Industry Forum’s Purple Guide.
  3. It is important to remember that whilst the ESAG as a body has no ‘powers’, many of its member organisations do have authority to apply conditions or serve notices on events to improve or cancel them. Such powers will only ever be used as a last resort and the overriding principle is one of safety support to events through the ESAG process advising on such matters.
  4. The ESAG will also (where possible) conduct a debrief of event safety with an event organiser to ensure continuous improvement. It is the responsibility of the event organiser to undertake a full de-brief of their event and submit written information regarding safety matters to the ESAG, so they can consider whether the debrief should be by way of attendance at a meeting or if the written debrief can be considered electronically.

Aims and objectives

The aim

The ESAG can be utilised as a tool in developing the safety of events and other similar public mass gatherings, to offer guidance to help event organisers discharge their responsibilities and to encourage an ethos of continual improvement.

The objectives

The policy objectives listed below will be applied to try to ensure the viability of events wherever possible and not to unnecessarily discourage community groups with limited funding. However, the health, safety and welfare of performers, staff and public is of primary importance throughout and so the policy will endeavour to:

  1. Protect life and prevent serious harm to persons and property, and to prevent crime and disorder.
  2. Promote the principles of sensible risk management and good practice in safety and welfare planning, to reduce risks to ‘As Low as is Reasonably Practicable’ (ALARP).
  3. Encourage the elements above are applied to performers and workers as well as all other persons attending the event, without impinging on the remit of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and its associated legislation placing duties on employers and employees.
  4. Provide a one-stop shop of the range of requirements and recommendations offered to events by a range of enforcing authorities and agencies and to define the roles and responsibilities of those ESAG members.
  5. Ensure plans are in place for contingency and emergency situations and ascertain that these are integrated with existing local plans and capabilities.
  6. Endeavour to ensure any detrimental effect of events on the wider environment is minimised
  7. Encourage event organisers to ensure damage to public open spaces is minimised and to encourage them to plan for the clearing of litter and refuse after events.
  8. Keep up to date with and share changes in legislation and guidance.
  9. Try to encourage event organisers to plan to ensure the maximum benefit to Local Authority residents from all events.
  10. Ensure adherence to Coventry City Council Policies where they apply.
  11. Seek to ensure a consistent approach to public events by Coventry City Council’s officers and representatives of authorities and agencies and define the procedure used by the ESAG.

Fundamental principles

  1. It is the policy of the Coventry ESAG to offer advice to endeavour to achieve the highest reasonably practicable standards of public safety at events, such as those outlined in section 8. This will include, for example, matters of crowd, fire, food, health & safety, noise, traffic management and to direct resources to those areas of highest risk.
  2. The Coventry ESAG does not make any decisions on behalf of the local authority or other agencies. Its role is advisory and as such it has no authority or power to either approve or ban events or give permissions for the use of land, highway or building. It must be noted though that some ESAG member organisations do have such powers, and these will be applied where appropriate. Where agencies may exercise their own statutory decision-making authority, it is stressed that this is the determination of that authority and not of the Coventry ESAG although such decisions may have indicative support from other ESAG members.
  3. The overall responsibility for the safety of persons at an event will always lie with the event organiser, venue/landowner or operator and management team.
  4. The only exception to the above will occur if/when a significant and imminent threat to life or public safety occurs. In this case, one of the emergency services may claim primacy for the duration of that incident or duration of the event. In such circumstances, this agreement should be discussed where time permits and always documented.
  5. Members of the Coventry ESAG must declare any material conflict of interest in relation to any matters put before the group before any discussion on that matter. Should this conflict of interest be considered prejudicial, that person should consider withdrawing, to be replaced by an appropriate party agreed with the group.
  6. The Coventry ESAG will have arrangements to ensure that appropriate records of procedures and meetings are maintained.
  7. The lessons learned via the Coventry ESAG processes and procedures will be applied for the benefit of all events within its area of responsibility.
  8. An ESAG process need not be a full meeting held around a table. 2020 has shown that in many cases, virtual meetings are a useful substitute and gain better attendance from members without the loss of time travelling to and from multiple meetings. Virtual meetings should be considered as a viable alternative in the future.

ESAG strategy

  • The ESAG is a multi-agency forum to promote good practice in safety and welfare planning for events. It seeks to ensure events have a minimal adverse impact on the community. It exists to consider plans presented by the event organisers of all events and offer guidance on the contents and structure of the Event Safety Management Plan (ESMP) and associated documents.
  • It is not the role of the ESAG to assist in the planning of events or the writing of plans, nor, to support the running of the event on the day. The purpose of the ESAG is to offer guidance to help event organisers discharge their legal responsibilities to public safety and welfare. The members of the ESAG or their agencies will not accept or adopt any of the responsibilities of the event organiser.
  • Information contained within the ESAG and shared with it may be subject to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, organisers in sharing documents and information may highlight where they believe that information might be exempt from the Act. There are many exemptions to the Act such as under S43(2) relating to commercially sensitive information which will need to be respected to maintain confidence in the ESAG.
  • In addition, this policy recognises and aims to apply as a minimum standard the central principles of the documents listed as appendices and entitled - A: ‘Legislation’ and B: ‘Guidance’.

Limitations

  1. As already stated, the ESAG has no statutory powers nor legal duties. Therefore, it has no bespoke powers of enforcement although individual organisations represented on the group may have these.
  2. The ESAG is not an enforcement body and whether an individual agency determines to use its own powers of enforcement is a decision for that agency and not the ESAG. Where an agency does consider the need to use their own powers, it is appropriate that this be discussed with other core members of the ESAG. This will ensure that one agency’s use of powers does not cause unforeseen additional challenges to other members.
  3. There may be occasions where more than one agency has powers to deal with a safety matter and in this case, discussions might include the use of the most appropriate power alone, or whether multiple powers by different organisations can be enacted simultaneously.
  4. ESAG members may find it useful to meet and discuss each member’s powers separate from an ordinary ESAG meeting, to ensure that all members are aware of each agency’s options and limitations. This type of meeting could also be an opportunity for the annual review of terms of reference and other documents.
  5. Collectively or as individuals, members of the ESAG will provide advice and guidance based on the facts known at the time and based upon their own competence, knowledge, and experience. This should not be assumed by organisers as ‘sign off’ or agreement for an event to proceed. Individual members of the ESAG must recognise their own limitations and the competencies of themselves and their agency and must act within these competencies.
  6. While an ESAG may advise in relation to the introduction and/or variation of conditions relating to safety certification and/or licensing, it is stressed that it should not be seen as a ‘lobbying forum’ in these respects. It is becoming more common for licensing conditions to now include attendance at an ESAG and couched in the terms of achieving public safety, is not an unreasonable requirement.
  7. If an event organiser refuses to engage with the ESAG or does not act on the advice given, ESAG will remain as supportive as possible and will take reasonable steps to maintain a positive relationship whilst acting in the best interest of public safety. However, the ESAG, as public bodies will be expected by many to take all reasonable steps to enhance public safety and may take alternative actions such as contacting landowners or insurance companies (see below) to approach them with their safety concerns for the event.
  8. While there may be no apparent legal duty to do so, some authorities and ESAG members might consider there is a moral and ethical duty to inform a landowner of significant safety concerns that they deem to pose a threat to public safety and the likely implications of these for the owner of the land. Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act(s) a landowner is likely to retain some duty of care regarding their land being used by an event organiser. Frequently landowners are not aware of this, and/or are not aware of the safety matters relating to an event or the legal implications for themselves.
  9. It is recognised however that should an event organiser continue to proceed with the event and act against the advice of the ESAG then steps may need be taken by the Category 1 responders, as per the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, to ensure public safety.In some situations, the ESAG will continue to monitor the planning, whilst also, as individual agencies, make plans to react to a situation they have identified as of concern, and do whatever is permitted within their individual powers to maintain public safety.
  10. Almost all ESAG matters will be resolved informally through negotiated processes and this is invariably the best method to maintain relationships and safety at events.
  11. The ESAG may sometimes wish to examine the insurance arrangements for an event. However, there is no legal requirement for these to be provided, nor is there a legal requirement for an event organiser to obtain public liability insurance.
  12. In extreme cases the ESAG may contact insurers to outline their safety concerns. It must be considered that this could result in the unwelcome outcome of an insurer withdrawing cover, causing an event to go ahead without insurance. It may well be that an insurer or broker is in a position to influence actions to address such safety concerns. As such, if all other opportunities have been exhausted, then the contacting of an events insurer might be the last opportunity to achieve an outcome to make an event less dangerous. The withdrawal of an insurance policy would in most circumstances lead to the withdrawal of permissive use of land and so potentially the cancellation of an event. This route will only be taken as a means of last resort when no other option is remaining. Any communication of this nature should make the concerns clear and the steps already taken outlined.
  13. However, where a local authority is in control of the land on which an event is to take place, it will certainly be prudent for it to check its own insurance policies and to confirm that the activities being undertaken are covered.
  14. A major challenge for an ESAG is where an event organiser refuses to engage with it. Where a ESAG becomes aware of an event which by its nature would normally be subject to the ESAG process, the ESAG should persevere in its attempts to establish contact with the organiser and details of all such attempts should be documented. This may involve contacting landowners and checking websites for organisers’ details, ticket sale points, etc. First contact should seek to explain that the role of the SAG is as a supportive body which does not intend to prevent or curtail activity.
  15. If the organiser refuses to engage with an ESAG process, in whatever format, the ESAG should consider why this is and whether there may be mitigating circumstances, such as travelling distances or involvement in other events. Early notice and the opportunity to dial in or conference call ESAGs may alleviate some of these issues.
  16. An ESAG process does not need to be lengthy nor should it be adversarial. Face-to-face meetings can be replaced by telephone calls, videoconferences, or email, especially when organisers are attempting to arrange events in many locations at the same time.
  17. A resolution may sometimes be better obtained away from large meetings and where a less formal approach is taken.

Event enquiry / approval / monitoring process

Event enquiry/approval/monitoring process flowchart

  1. The Coventry ESAG will consider events that fall into the following categories, but does not exclude the option to cover other events if appropriate that do not fall into these groups:
    • Events of an unusual nature;
    • Events with significant numbers of attendees;
    • Events with a significant or unusual level of risk;
    • New venues;
    • Events or venues where there has been previous issues or incidents;
    • ‘Events’ may be considered in the widest context of the word and include any large groups of people coming together, from protest to religious gatherings if there is likely to be a safety element or significant impact on others within the area; and
    • New event organiser or where an organiser has no history of running events of this type or scale.
  2. The ESAG may also consider small, low risk events should an event organiser request them to do so and resources permit.

Status and conflicts of interests for SAG members

  1. ESAG members must declare any conflict of interest prior to the start of an ESAG in relation to the event or applicant for the process. Such a declaration does not exclude them from the process, but it is appropriate that the ESAG is aware that a prior knowledge of an applicant, or potential conflict exists. If the interest could be considered prejudicial, then that person should consider if they should withdraw and be replaced by an appropriate person agreed with the group.
  2. The ESAG cannot take any decisions on behalf of Coventry City Council or other partners. The statutory decision-making powers sit with the authority or other agencies where designated.
  3. Ultimate responsibility for the event safety lies with the event organiser
  4. All members of the ESAG will retain a high degree of professionalism and probity and will not at any time act in a way which may compromise the position of the Group or its members.

Core membership and organisational roles and responsibilities

These need to be checked by each signatory to the Policy Document and potentially by line managers and legal departments.

In simplest terms, those core members will be from the same statutory bodies that consist of the Category 1 responders within the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004. Those would include: Local Authorities, Police, Fire, Ambulance, Coastguard, NHS Primary Care Trusts, Health Protection Agency, Ports Health Authorities and the Environment Agency. However, only those applicable to the area or event would be called upon, for example, the use of the Coastguard would be unnecessary for most events in Coventry.  In many cases, hospital trusts are represented by the local ambulance service, but it is important that in these circumstances, West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) are relaying details of events to hospitals to allow them to plan any response.

Ideally ESAG members will have a specific E-mail address which is not their own ‘in house’ work email, but a generic one that can be switched to another user if that person moves on or can be monitored whilst they are on leave. So sagmember@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:sagmember@coventry.gov.uk] or sagmember@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk [mailto:sagmember@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk] would be more appropriate. Each ESAG member should have a deputy who can support them and be able to undertake their role if they leave their organisation or are unable to continue with their duties.       

Local Authority Representatives

These should include officers with the competency to advise on matters such as Event Planning, Licensing, Food Safety and Environmental Health, Public Protection, Emergency Planning, Highways and Traffic, Public Health when/where appropriate, Health and Safety and any other officers as required to discharge their duties as appropriate to their position as a Category 1 Responder under the Civil Contingencies Act.

Police

Police representatives attend with regard to matters such as public order and public safety, incident response planning, community policing, enforcement and any other duty as appropriate to their position as a Category 1 Responder under the Civil Contingencies Act. Their roles will be confined, unless agreed otherwise to those defined in the ‘Approved Police Practice’ (APP) for Events under The National Police Chief Council (NPCC) protocols. Core principles (college.police.uk) [about:blank#role-of-the-police]

West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service

Fire and Rescue representatives attend with regard to matters such as public safety, incident response planning, provision of advice on matters relating to fire safety and evacuation, enforcement and any other duty as appropriate to their position as a Category 1 Responder under the Civil Contingencies Act.

West Midlands Ambulance Service

WMAS representatives attend with regard to matters such as incident response, medical provision advice and guidance, consideration of a private medical company’s medical plans, the impact of the event upon local medical and transport arrangements and any other duty as appropriate to their position as a Category 1 Responder under the Civil Contingencies Act.

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust

Attendance by the Trust representatives may only be necessary for the largest and most complex events and those of high physical risk. However, as a minimum, they should be kept informed of events, likely road closures and any events close to medical facilities.

It is expected that all matters of cost are met by each agency, but where external expertise or advice is necessary, costs of such a service should fall with organisers of events after discussion with them.

Non-core (invited) ESAG attendees

These are the representatives who will be called to specific ESAGs and for specific reasons rather than each one.

Event organiser

The event organiser may be called to all ESAGs but it may be appropriate from time to time for the authorities to discuss the event without the need for them to be present, for instance if wishing to prepare a list of questions for a future ESAG about that event.

An event organiser is responsible for planning and production as well as all health, safety, and welfare-related matters for those affected by the event including visitors to the event, staff or volunteers working at the event, contractors and others such as neighbours and responding emergency services personnel. It is worth occasionally reminding organisers of their wider responsibilities under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to those not employed by them but to those affected by any work-related activity, including neighbours and the public generally.

Their responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

  1. Documenting arrangements necessary to safeguard visitors which are normally documented in an Event Management Plan (EMP), or Event Safety Management Plan (ESMP). The name of the document is not important, but its contents are.
  2. Arrangements for identifying and controlling risks associated with the event including the build-up and break-down phases of the event. This would normally be a documented risk assessment and safety systems/methods of work. Combined, this is often referred to as Risk Assessment/Method Statement (RAMS). Other areas may include:
    • Fire safety arrangements.
    • Traffic planning and management.
    • Crowd safety, stewarding, and security management.
    • Emergency and Contingency arrangements including evacuation (in consultation with the emergency services).
    • Public health.
    • Communication arrangements.
    • Medical and first aid provision including where appropriate, transport to hospital.
    • Insurance, licensing, and certification provision.

Coventry ESAG strongly recommends that an event organiser engages with residents or the communities affected by the event, however, Coventry ESAG considers that in general this should take place outside of the ESAG.

There are three primary reasons for this:

  1. Residents and communities have many and varied concerns and considerations regarding events. Most of these are not linked to safety matters.It is therefore a diversion of the ESAG system and resource intensive for their concerns to be considered and addressed within an ESAG meeting.
  2. One role of the ESAG is to scrutinise organisers contingency and emergency plans and overlay these within existing emergency arrangements. The exposure of such plans to a wider public audience, and potential subsequent publication of them, may threaten the viability of those plans, especially in matters of counter terrorism, escape and evacuation routes and rendezvous points (RVPs) and in turn, the safety of those affected by them.
  3. Some of the safety matters discussed in ESAG meetings are of a confidential or commercially sensitive nature, e.g. matters relating to artists, or matters relating to security or terrorism. To have persons present whose background or intentions are not known may compromise the confidentiality of a ESAG, as well as compromise the safety of an event. Such matters may be exempt from publication of Freedom of Information Act (2000) requests under one of the exemptions such as S43(2) ’commercially sensitive’.

Local Authority representatives who are not part of the core team.

As deemed appropriate: Child Protection, Communication/Media, Legal Services and others would not be considered ‘core members’ but whose presence at specific meetings may be beneficial to the group as a whole.  

  • Promotors: who are not always necessarily the ‘organiser’ but may be funding a project.
  • Venue or Landowners: especially where an organiser is being less than amenable.
  • Security and Stewarding Companies: who may be the principle authors of a crowd management plan but will also likely be the greatest numbers of ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground and whose effectiveness will be vital to the safety plan.
  • Crowd Safety Managers: for more complex crowd events where the ESAG needs detailed explanations of part of the Crow Safety Management Plan.
  • Private Medical Providers: to ensure clear understanding and competence on the writing and delivery of medical plans and for scrutiny by health authorities and the ambulance service.
  • Traffic Management Companies: to ensure close links between authority traffic managers.
  • Highways England: where the event may have significant impact upon the major road networks and/or where the use of significant VMS signs available on major roads and motorways may be of use.
  • Transport Providers: who will deliver and return large volumes of people to and from an event.
  • British Transport Police: generally, when large volumes of people will use public transport but commonly invited by local police to attend.
  • Maritime and Coastguard Agency: for Coventry ESAG, only where land-based search and rescue operations might be necessary in this context.
  • Supporters and/or Residents Groups: NB: whilst recommended by Lord Justice Taylor, it is unusual now for supporters and/or resident’s groups to be invited to ESAG. The necessity to discuss commercially sensitive plans and emergency procedures generally precludes the attendance of members of the public from such meetings and community engagement should be a matter for the event organiser to arrange as discussed previously.
  • Official Bodies: e.g., Sports Ground Safety Authority:  there may be occasions where the work of the ESAG overlaps with other regulatory safety bodies such as the SGSA (non-sporting events in sporting arenas). Where such expertise exists, it would be unwise to not engage with it. Others might include the Forestry Commission for events bordering their land, the Environment Agency for events in vulnerable locations or where Natural England for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Administration

  1. Each ESAG will maintain its own arrangements for provision of an effective secretariat function. This function will normally be facilitated by the local authority and will not normally be carried out by a person participating in the ESAG.
  2. It is normal for administrative responsibilities to be undertaken by the same organisation as the chairperson (typically the local authority), although this is not always the case. Responsibilities will include acting as a conduit for information; communication; and coordination/distribution of documentation. Experience suggests that these requirements should not be underestimated.
  3. Given the importance of the chairperson’s role, it will not be appropriate for them to record the minutes, so another member will need to be responsible for this. Ideally secretarial support will be provided by a person who is not a participating active ESAG member but is within the same organisation as the chairperson and with ready access to them.

The role of the secretariat is to:

  1. Arrange meetings, venue, and timings to suit as many members as possible. Booking meetings on an annual basis with a regular cycle is the best way to achieve this.
  2. Take minutes of the meetings and circulate these to attendees as soon as reasonably practicable after the meeting.
  3. Produce an agenda and circulate to core members with adequate time for them to be read.
  4. Keep a record of key decisions made during meetings. It is also vital to ensure that an audit trail is maintained reflecting the ESAG processes. It is recommended that the chairperson and secretariat encourage confirmation of receipt of papers by members in the form of an email acknowledgement of receipt of minutes etc. A second subsequent email (or simultaneously) the recipient should confirm that they have read associated documents on the email and add any comments they may have. 
  5. Coordinate the invitations sent to event organisers and the circulation and distribution of papers in advance of the meetings.
  6. Keep records of any letters or concern or matters of interest sent to organisers or parties such as landowners, insurance companies etc.
  7. The ESAG administration is key to its effectiveness but also vital in ensuring accuracy of records and actions that may be pertinent in subsequent hearings or prosecutions.
  8. The audit trail of a ESAG will almost certainly be the subject of public record, potential FOI application and any subsequent court proceedings, criminal or civil.
  9. The ESAG must have a process to avoid the unnecessary sharing of information outside the ESAG that is commercially sensitive to the companies who own it. Some protection in this regard is provided by S43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which states: ‘Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person, including the public authority holding it’. As such, any emails, plans or other similar documentation provided to the ESAG and held by its members that is marked appropriately by the authors or requested to be treated as commercially sensitive should be withheld even if subject to requests under the Act.
  10. Additionally, ESAGs must consider their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 2018 (The UK activation of the European GDPR Regulations). To effectively undertake their role, ESAGs will hold information about people and therefore must have a privacy policy for the holding, storage, retention and disposal of information.

Events diary

The ESAG will consider as a group the establishment and maintenance of an events diary for its area. Encouraging its use will over time give a clearer picture of those events that ESAG will need to focus its attention upon.

Chairperson

  1. Most often the chairperson will be one of the core members of the ESAG, normally this is a representative from the local authority.  The chairperson will have the necessary competencies required for chairing an ESAG and their key responsibilities are to ensure:
    1. That the group discharges its responsibilities fairly, effectively, efficiently and proportionately;
    2. Where practicable appropriate representation is on the group;
    3. That all members have the opportunity to participate;
    4. That an audit trail of group process is maintained; and
    5. Have a significantly senior position to obtain secretarial support and be able to challenge SAG members within their own and other organisations.
  2. Where the event being considered is organised by the chairperson’s agency, and to prevent an actual or perceived conflict of interest, it will be normal for another agency to assume the role of chairperson. In Coventry ESAG this agency may be any other agency who is a core member. 
  3. However, where the chair feels the event in question may cause a significant conflict of interest, they may choose to consider bringing in an external or independent person of suitable experience to chair the ESAG. This can be accomplished by exchanges with nearby ESAG chair from another authority. 

ESAG Processes published

The processes of the ESAG will be published and available via links on the council website but also those of the ESAG members. There is still a wide assumption that police are the ‘go to’ organisation when seeking permission for events and the referral back to a council website and the events diary will encourage and educate the public accordingly.

Meeting frequency

  1. ESAGs within Coventry will meet periodically to a timetable as appropriate to the number of events within the District but planned for no less than six times per year.  Meetings will be cancelled if there are no events on the agenda or matters to be discussed.
  2. For minor events or those of little concern a meeting may not be necessary, and the event dealt with by circulation of papers electronically, sometimes referred to as ‘ESAG light’.  It is acknowledged that this method can provide vital support to event organisers without the need for a formal meeting.  Notwithstanding, if the ESAG members feel that the presence of the organiser or other parties is crucial, then a formal meeting may be called.

Notification form via internet

A form will be developed that can be completed online by event organisers and in a simple format permitting organisers to submit a notification of an event of any scale in the first instance directly to the Event Team.

Scoring of completed forms

The notification form will permit council officers to use a simple scoring matrix as a triage/filtration process in deciding whether the event should be subject to a full ESAG, ‘ESAG light’ or no follow-up. This will be recorded. In undertaking even this process, an ESAG process of some kind has been undertaken.

Completed triage forms

Once an event has been triaged, the completed triage forms will be saved in a SharePoint folder and will be shared with all members if necessary.

Decision-making regarding Full ESAG, ESAG Light or No ESAG

A decision as to whether an event requires full, light or no ESAG should be made and notified to ESAG members based upon the responses. Where only one organisation requires a fuller ESAG process, the matter(s) that concern them may be manageable in direct conversation with event organisers, but the outcomes should always be notified to other ESAG members.

Review

This Policy Document will ideally be reviewed annually but in any case, at least every two years. If following any significant learning, change in legislation or guidance or other just cause is felt by its members, the Coventry ESAG will review its own procedures and Terms of Reference (ToR) at will to ensure they remain appropriate, fit for purpose and in line with current guidance and best practice.

This document must be reviewed once recommendations of the Manchester Arena Inquiry have been published and again when the proposed ‘Protect Duty’ legislation (Martyn’s Law) is introduced.

Appendix A:  relevant legislation

  • Licensing Act 2003 (As amended).
  • The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 [http://www.gov.uk/guidance/preparation-and-planning-for-emergencies-responsibilities-of-responder-agencies-and-others]
  • The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
  • The Fire and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987
  • Building Act 1984 Sections 77 and 78
  • The Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974
  • The Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998
  • Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975
  • The Football Spectators Act 1989
  • The Football (Offences) Act 1991
  • Public Health Acts Amendment Act 1890 (Section 37)
  • Fireworks Regulations 2004
  • The Private Security Industry Act 2001
  • Occupiers’ Liabilities Acts 1957 and 1984
  • Equalities Act 2010
  • Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
  • Gross Negligence Manslaughter (Common Law)
  • Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1984 (as amended by the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003)
  • Crime and Disorder Act 1998
  • Town and Police Clauses Act 1847 (Road closures)
  • Road Traffic Regulations 1984 S16A (Road closures)
  • Highways Act 1980, S115 (Structures on highways)
  • The Cycle Racing on Highways Regulations 1960 (Amended 1980 and 1995)
  • The Traffic Management Act 2004
  • Construction and Design Management Regulations 2015
  • Social Action, Responsibilities and Heroism Act 2015

Appendix B: Relevant guidance

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