Sectors
Sports grounds and events.
The one sector where premises and event can fall on opposite sides of the line — a ground excluded all year can host something firmly in scope for a single afternoon.
01 — Two separate questions
The ground, and the fixture.
Elsewhere, scope is a question about a building. Here it is two questions that can yield different answers on the same day, and conflating them is the most common error in this sector.
- Is the ground a qualifying premises? Schedule 1 paragraph 4 makes use as a sports ground a specified use — but it points directly at Schedule 2.
- Is the fixture a qualifying event? Section 3 assesses events on their own terms, whatever the answer to the first question.
“Sports ground” is not loosely defined. It takes its meaning from section 17(1) of the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 in England, Wales and Scotland, and from Article 2(2) of the Safety of Sports Grounds (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 in Northern Ireland.
02 — The exclusion
Open, unticketed grounds are excluded.
Schedule 2 paragraph 3 removes a ground from scope where two conditions are both met.
- The premises are a park, garden, recreation ground, a sports ground that is not a designated sports ground, or other open-air premises used for recreation or leisure.
- Nothing checks entry — no measures are in place to secure or check that people have paid, hold a ticket or pass, or are members or guests of a club or association.
Designation is material. A designated sports ground — designated under the Safety of Sports Grounds legislation — is not covered by this exclusion at all.
The provision most often overlooked
The Act requires that measures put in place for particular events be disregarded where they do not limit public access at other times, and measures for particular facilities where they do not limit access to the premises generally.
A municipal recreation ground that fences and tickets one tournament a year does not thereby become a qualifying premises. It remains an excluded open-air ground for the other fifty-one weeks. The tournament is assessed separately, as an event.
03 — Events
800, and a controlled way in.
Section 3 sets out the test. In summary, all of the following:
- the premises are not already enhanced duty premises, and do not form part of any;
- the public have access for the purpose of attending the event;
- it is reasonable to expect 800 or more present at the same time at some point during it;
- entry is controlled — payment, ticket, pass, or membership of a club, association or similar body.
That final condition is decisive. An open, free, uncounted gathering of two thousand people is not a qualifying event. Apply a gate and a ticket, and it becomes one.
Practical consequence. Where a ground is excluded under Schedule 2 but hired out for ticketed fixtures, festivals or concerts, protective security obligations arrive and depart with the fixture. That is an operational rhythm rather than a one-off assessment, and it warrants a repeatable process rather than a document.
04 — Engagement
Two assessments, not one.
The ground is assessed once. The fixture is assessed every time it recurs, which makes a repeatable process more useful than a document.
- The ground’s position under Schedule 2, and whether designation applies.
- An event test you can re-run per fixture rather than re-commission.
- Procedures and a briefing scaled to the crowd actually expected.
- A record showing which fixtures were assessed, and on what basis.
Scoped to the premises, never to a package, and stated as a fixed fee before work begins — see how an engagement runs.
Next
Establish the ground first.
The scope checker includes the Schedule 2 open-air exclusion, so it can identify when the ground is out even though the fixture may not be.