Recommendation to abolish the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority

Update - March 2011

Common Sense, Common Safety recommended that the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) be abolished and the existing statutory licensing regime be replaced by a code of practice. We committed to keeping licence holders and other interested parties informed of developments so far and next steps.

HSE is working towards the implementation of Lord Young's recommendation. There are significant legislative stages to go through, including those involving the devolved administrations so it is not certain when licensing will end. The current expectation is that licensing will remain in place until late 2012. Providers of licensable activities must continue to comply with the requirements on them until licensing ends.

The work is still very much in the developmental stages and there are a number of possible options to remove licensing.

The intent of the recommendation is clearly to remove licensing without replacement (other than by a code of practice). We are aware that the new arrangements must not result in a greater burden than licensing. The new arrangements need to work both for large organisations and for SMEs.

HSE continues to meet with interested parties and stakeholder groups and the views and concerns expressed will form part of our deliberations.

We are aware that a very important part of work is the expectation that the public can continue to have reassurance about standards in the adventure activities sector. We will be seeking the public's views about how we can achieve this as a part of our consultation process.

We do not anticipate any further announcements until after the elections in Scotland and Wales.