Renewal of the General Safety Certificate for Sports Grounds
North Lanarkshire Council · 6 September 2022
Back to Regulatory Committee — 6 September 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Regulatory Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref AR/EH Date 06/09/22 Renewal of the General Safety Certificate for Sports Grounds From Archie Aitken, Head of Legal and Democratic Solutions E-mail RoseAn@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07951 409714 1. Background 1.1 In terms of the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975, and the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sports Act 1987, the Council is responsible, as the Certifying Authority, for the certification of designated sports grounds and grounds with regulated stands within North Lanarkshire. 1.2 In that connection, the Council previously adopted the Sixth Edition of the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (hereinafter referred to as the Green Guide) which was published in 2018. 1.3 The Green Guide is an advisory document for use by competent persons working in the regulation and licensing, the design and planning, and the safety management and operation of sports grounds. 1.4 The document is the distillation of many years of research and experience and is updated periodically to take into account emerging issues and trends in the field. Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to consider the renewal of the General Safety Certificate for Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld, Excelsior Park, Airdrie, Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell and Reigart Stadium, Coatbridge. Recommendations It is recommended that the Regulatory Committee approve, for Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld, Excelsior Park, Airdrie, Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell and Reigart Stadium, Coatbridge, the General Safety Certificate The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities Ambition statement (14) Ensure the highest standards of public protection
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1.5 The Sixth Edition of the Green Guide was published by the Sports Grounds Safety Authority 2018 in response to a number of developments in sports grounds safety management and design over the previous decade. 1.6 A fundamental principle of the Green Guide is that responsibility for all people present in a sports ground lies at all times with the ground management. The management will normally be either the owner or lessee of the ground. 1.7 Accordingly, the ground management is required to arrange for the inspection of the sports grounds, and for the subsequent submission of all necessary inspection reports and certificates to the Council for verification and comment by the responsible persons in the Council and emergency services. 1.8 Throughout the Green Guide, reference is made to the need for ground management to conduct risk assessments. This includes the requirement to carry out specific risk assessments at all events, including any ancillary activities. Risk assessments should be undertaken by competent persons with the appropriate skills and experience. Risk assessments should consist of the following steps, which should be documented:- • identify hazards to which all people at the ground may be exposed; • evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions and control measures are adequate and, if not, all conditional control measures should be in place; • recording the findings and implement preventative and/or protective measures, and • assess and review the adequacy and effectiveness of such measures, and revise them when necessary. 2. Report 2.1 Inspection of Sports Grounds 2.1.1 The Council has adopted practices in relation to its responsibilities for the certification of the four designated sports grounds and grounds with regulated stands in North Lanarkshire, those being (a) Broadwood Stadium, Cumbernauld; (b) Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie; (c) Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell, and (d) Reigart (formerly known as Cliftonhill) Stadium, Coatbridge. 2.1.2 During 2022, the responsible officers of the Council and representatives of the emergency services caried out a series of inspections at each of the four sports grounds. 2.1.3 During this period of inspection the Council was informed by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that it no longer considered it had a duty or obligation to undertake such inspections and that it believed that responsibility lay with the Council. Accordingly, in 2022, and going forward, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will no longer undertake inspections of sports grounds. However, that service has indicated that they would be able and willing to provide support to the Council and its officers where this may be required.
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2.1.4 Ground management for each of the sports grounds was asked to submit to the Council the following documents for verification and comment as part of the certificate renewal process:- • Annual Structural Inspection Certificate and Report; • Annual Risk Assessment for Barriers and Handrails; • Annual Periodic Electrical Installation Report, and • Certificate of Risk Assessment of the Stadium's Adequacy. 2.2 Outcome of Inspections 2.2.1 During the inspection process, a number of issues were identified at some stadiums for which resolution and works required to be carried out before a certification could be provided. Such work and resolution has been carried out and completed to the satisfaction of the appropriate inspection agency, specifically the Council, so that all stadiums are now deemed able to be provided with a Safety Certificate. 3. Measures of success 3.1 The implementation of the measures necessary to ensure the reasonable safety of spectators at each of the four designated stadiums in North Lanarkshire. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 N/A Head of Legal and Democratic Solutions
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? It is the practice for the Council's costs for the administration of the annual inspection process to be reimbursed by the owners of the sports grounds. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Compliance with the Council's duties, under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 and the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987, as certifying authority, for the certification of designated sports grounds and grounds with regulated stands in North Lanarkshire. 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐
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If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed?