Adventure activities licensing ensures that activity providers follow good safety management practices. HSE is very supportive of such activities which allow young people to experience exciting and stimulating activities outdoors without being exposed to avoidable risks of death or disabling injury.
Adventure activities licensing is delivered jointly by the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (a role undertaken by the Health and Safety Executive since 1 April 2007) and the Adventure Activities Licensing Service, which is under contract to the Health and Safety Executive.
This is a small sector in terms of numbers of businesses and activity centres but as these are predominantly in rural parts of the country they are very important to local economies. Many of the undertakings are small enterprises and sole traders (freelance instructors) are common. We keep this in mind by producing straight forward guidance on how license holders can meet their legal duties.
There is a small team who has responsibility for the management of HSE’s adventure activities licensing work. This work is led from Scotland for the whole of Great Britain. The team has responsibility for the day to day management of the licensing contract, the provision of advice to HSE and Local Authority inspectors, developing guidance material, liaison with sector stakeholders, UK Government departments, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly and dealing with general enquiries. The team also supports the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) which has overall responsibility for the regime. The AALA is chaired by David Ashton, HSE’s Director of Field Operations.
We are presently working with Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People on a project to produce guidance to make it easier for looked after children to have the same opportunities to experience the outdoors as other children. This booklet will help slay some of the myths that have grown up that are denying looked after children the chance to “Go Outdoors”
We are also engaged with Learning and Teaching Scotland to contribute to the health and safety aspects of the Outdoor Learning Framework in Scotland. Again this is to make it as straightforward as possible for teachers to take our young learners out of the classroom by making sure that artificial health and safety barriers are not put in their way.
We are engaged with the Department for Children, Families and Schools in England on their work to up date their guidance for outdoor activities and school trips in support of Learning Outside the Classroom.
