Duration of Licence

Issue: The duration of a licence is an area where there may be potential for disagreement between the inspector and provider. This Guidance Note is intended to assist inspectors to make an appropriate recommendation as to the duration of a licence. The Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004, regulation 8(d) sets the maximum duration of a licence at 3 years; it can be for a lesser period.

1. Indicators for recommending a 1-year licence

You are satisfied that the provider's safety management is sound and they fall into one of the following categories:

• Very large providers – providers taking over 150 people at any one time;
• Large providers - providers offering activities to over 50 people at any one time who occasionally use seasonal, freelance or similar instructional staff.  'Activities' for the purposes of this guidance note includes both licensable and non-licensable adventure activities.  It therefore includes ropes courses but excludes 'non-adventurous' activities such as simple field studies and trivial risk sports such as 'pitch and putt'.  Inspectors should exercise discretion in considering which activities are taken into account;
• Medium-sized providers - providers offering adventure activities to 21-50 people at any one time where the majority of staff deployed at any one time to lead activities may be seasonal, freelance or occasional (See note 2);
• Track record -
  1. No track record - i.e. provider is a new or  inexperienced provider; or
  2. Poor track record - the provider has a poor record of addressing requirements or has been the subject of relevant enforcement action by the health and safety enforcing authority.  Relevant enforcement action would include action specific to adventure activities or on general health and safety management issues.  Enforcement action includes notices and prosecutions.
• In all cases the recommendation must be accompanied by an explanation to the Head of Inspection in the Inspector’s report.

2. Indicators for recommending a 2-year Licence

You are satisfied that the provider's safety management is sound and they fall into one of the following categories:

• Small provider – provider offering adventure activities to up to 20 people at any one time;
• Medium-sized provider – provider offering adventure activities to 21 - 50 people at any one time where:
  1. the majority of staff deployed to lead activities are, at all times, permanent staff; or
  2. at the time of inspection have current NGB accreditation for all their licensable activities, where an accreditation scheme exists (see note 3);
• Large provider – provider offering adventure activities to over 50 people at any one time who:
  1. generally take on no occasional, seasonal or freelance staff to lead activities.  "Generally" allows for cover during illness or unusual reasons for periods of absence such as attending courses etc; or
  2. uses occasional/freelance/seasonal staff but has NGB accreditation for all licensable activities, where an accreditation scheme exists.

3. Indicators for recommending a 3-year Licence

You are satisfied that the provider's safety management is sound and they fall into one of more of the following categories:

• The provider is a sole provider or partnership (up to 3 partners); and each partner is very well qualified and they do not use any occasional, seasonal, freelance or part-time staff to work autonomously or lead activities (see note 5). 
• The provider is a small provider who, at the time of inspection, has NGB accreditation for all licensable activities, where an accreditation scheme exists.

4. Indicators for Licence Duration for Local Authority Provision

Criteria	Indicators for 1-year	Indicators for 2-years	Indicators for 3-years
Number of participants	More than 20 participants at a time and/or	20 or less participants at one time and/or
Number of days activities taking place*	Offering activities for more that 28 days per year and/or	Offering activities for less than 28 days per year and/or
Number of units or bases	Operating from more than 1 base or unit	Operating from only one base or unit

5. In exceptional cases there may be some provision that falls outside the above indicators.  In the event of an exceptional case, then inspectors should provide an explanation of the circumstances in their report.  The Head of Inspection will decide on the appropriate licence duration.

6. If the provider does not agree with the duration the inspector is minded to recommend, they should be advised that they can make representation to the Head of Inspection of the AALS and will be sent details of how to do this with their copy of the report.

NOTES

The following notes help explain the above criteria. 

1. The overall picture as viewed by the inspector should take account of the above criteria as guidance in recommending the duration of licence in their report¹.  The above criteria are based on "Guidance from the Licensing Authority" (L77), primarily paragraphs 70 – 73
2. Staff Categories:
   • Permanent or long-term staff - instructors normally present when the provider is operating and who are employed over a minimum expected period of 2 years;
   • Temporary or short-term staff - instructors who may not work for the provider for up to half the operational year and who are employed over a maximum expected period of 2 years;
   • Seasonal or seasonal short-term staff - instructors who work only part of the operational year.  Any operator who lays all staff off over a quiet period is seasonal.  If the operating year is itself seasonal then short-seasonal means 'works less than half of the operational year';
   • Occasional or Freelance - instructors who are employed on an ad-hoc basis as and when needed;
   • Two people job-sharing may each be considered permanent provided there are satisfactory 'handover' procedures.
3. For the purposes of the indicator for granting a 2 year licence based on the fact that a provider at the time of renewal has NGB accreditation for all activities (where an appropriate accreditation scheme exists):
   • Dinghy sailing and windsurfing may be accepted as a 'single activity'.  However, do not apply this clause if the provider offers: (a) sailing and canoeing but only has accreditation from the RYA or BCU; or (b) also offers significant non-accreditable activities e.g. climbing;
   • Acceptable NGB accreditation schemes are currently: RYA, BCU/CE/SCA/WCA, BHS/ABRS/TRSS/WTRA, BOF²;
   • The 'Conditions' section of the Inspection Report should read: e.g. “The agreed period of this licence is dependent on the provider's continued status as a Royal Yachting Association Recognised Teaching Establishment.  If this lapses the licence document must be returned to the Licensing Service for amendment.”
4. Provided the activities are not at the upper hazard level and are well structured, including arrangements for the induction of staff:
   • Less than 1400 participant days of licensable activity per year may warrant a 2 year licence, e.g. a maximum of 50 participants for a maximum of 4 weeks (28 days) or a maximum of 4 participants for a maximum of 50 weeks (350 days) or a maximum of 20 participants for a maximum of 10 weeks (70 days);
   • Less than 350 participant days of licensable activity per year may warrant a 3 year licence, e.g. a maximum of 50 participants for 1 week (7 days) or a maximum of 1participant for 50 weeks (350 days) or a maximum of 10 participants for 5 weeks (35 days).

   These examples are only guidelines.

   Examples of these situations where a non-standard duration may be appropriate:

   • Providers who only operate up to a total of 28 days in a period of a year; 
   • Providers who offer very limited activities (less than 10% of their total operation) as a supplement to their main undertaking , e.g. holiday park where most of the activities are swimming, fun rides, bouncy castles, etc.  This could also apply to a field study centre;
   • Providers who offer activities on the very margins of licensing.
5. A Sole Provider or Partnership may take on an 'accompanying assistant'.  A second person assisting should be with the same group.  An example where this would be appropriate is for example, a special needs group on the river, crag or hill where it would be sensible to have a higher level of supervision.  It does not include situations where an 'assistant' has any autonomy e.g. leading a separate group on the same section of river, working on a different part of a crag or following behind with a separate group on the same mountain route.  Partnerships – this could be in the form of a husband/wife or other legally recognised partnership as well as a formal legal business partnership.  Business partnerships should conform to normal business understandings, i.e. it should be clear to the participant that they are employing the services of a 'Partnership'.  Partnerships of convenience between freelance or sole provider operators are not acceptable.  Inspectors may if necessary ask to see any documentation necessary to help them reach their decision (Reg. 6(4) and 9(d)).

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¹Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004 Regulation 6(2) requires the Licensing Authority to consider a report made by an inspector before granting a licence.

²This list may from time to time be subject to change.  Contact the AALS office if an accreditation scheme is not on this list.