HSE seeks comments on updated Event Safety Guide

The Health and Safety Executive has opened consultation on a revised version of HSG195 ‘The event safety guide – A guide to health, safety and welfare at music and similar events.’

The draft has been developed by HSE and key stakeholders in the industry to help organisers comply with the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) and associated regulations.

The revised guide focuses on risk assessment and management. It is aimed primarily at organisers of music and similar events, although the principles set out in the guide may be applicable to other events.

Included is a chapter devoted to ‘Electricity and Lighting’ which reiterates that:

• Event organisers, contractors and others using electrical equipment must do all that is reasonably practicable to ensure electrical installations and/or equipment are properly selected, installed and maintained so as not to cause death or serious injury.
• Those working with electrical equipment and installations should be competent.
• Provide residual current devices and circuit breakers.
• Take risks from lightning strikes into account and use appropriate measures to reduce the risk.

The updated draft also reinforces the benefits of keeping maintenance logs for portable and transportable electrical equipment, including test results, as a useful management tool for monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of electrical maintenance schemes.

In addition the new document notes that, overall, the scale of any event will determine the complexity of the testing required. The minimum requirement would be a portable appliance test certificate for any ‘plug-in’ equipment. The maximum requirement would be the test requirements found in BS7671 applied to the entire installation.

The type, detail and certification of the testing programme should be decided by the competent person in accordance with the requirement of the installation. The event organiser should hold copies of all test records.

Alongside each chapter of the draft is a comments form. Comments on the draft are required by Friday 11th November 2011. More details at www.hse.gov.uk/entertainment/eventsafety