HEALTH AND SAFETY AT EVENTS
People and groups involved in organising opportunities for others to take part in sporting and recreational activities have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of participants. Because risk can spill over from the arena to viewing areas, they must also take steps to ensure the safety of spectators, paid and volunteer staff, and the public at large.
Managing risk under the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) is a two-tiered system.
The event must:
- Eliminate risk as far as reasonably practicable
- If the risk can't be eliminated, they must be minimised as far as reasonably practicable
To determine what is reasonably practicable, an event risk management assessment must consider:
- How likely it is the risk will happen
- The degree of harm – how badly someone could be hurt
- What the person involved knows or should reasonably know about the hazard or risk, and the controls
- What controls are available and suitable.
After reviewing the above, consider the cost of the controls and whether the costs far outweigh the benefits.
This essentially means the event must do their best to manage risks, but don’t have to do everything humanly possible or carry out impractical risk assessments to manage risks.
Effective risk management applies a clear process to identify risks at an event and make sure that everyone who could be affected by that risk knows about it and its identified controls.
EVENT CAPABILITY SEMINAR
In May 2019, Cycling New Zealand hosted a free Event Capability Seminar for clubs. A summary of the content is here. For a full presentation please email events@cyclingnewzealand.nz
EXAMPLES AND TEMPLATES
Below you will find templates and documents that may be of assistance for your club/event. Please note that these are generic templates/documents and you will need to alter them to be specific to your club/event requirements. The documents are not intended as legal advice to cover club/event activities. The templates are offered on a ‘no liability’ basis and we recommend the club/event seek independent advice from Health and Safety professionals, legal professionals and associated parties (e.g. local police, council) with regard to particular events and activities for your club/event:
See also Commissaire Resources
FREE ONLINE HEALTH & SAFETY TRAINING
Sport New Zealand has developed a course in partnership with Skills Active ITO for all workers.
This course is for all paid and volunteer workers in the sport and recreation sector. Everyone who works in the sector needs to help keep participants and the public safe. This course takes approximately 20-40 minutes to complete depending on your prior knowledge and experience.
After completing this course you will be able to:
- identify who is responsible for what when it comes to health and safety
- identify what your rights are as a paid or volunteer worker
- describe some of the systems and processes that are used to keep everyone safe and having fun
- identify and manage hazards
Event Toolkit Click here.