FAQs

From 1^st April 2020 the AALA (part of the HSE) have taken all administration of the licensing scheme in house. They have contracted with a private company (Adventure RMS Ltd) to undertake application reviews and some ad hoc work on their behalf, but all administration, including the handling of enquiries and questions about the scheme or about current licences, are now handled by the AALA. Adventure RMS respond to applications they receive from the AALA and they are contracted to undertake a review and provide a decision within a set time frame. Adventure RMS do not have a ‘public facing’ role with regards to the licensing scheme and cannot answer questions that should be directed to the AALA. In essence the AALA (HSE) sit between providers / the public and the inspectorate (Adventure RMS).

This means that questions about current licences or about the licensing scheme in general, complaints or enquiries about licence holders etc, should be directed to the AALA (AALA-applications@hse.gov.uk).

Further context –

The Activity Centres (Young Persons’ Safety) Act 1995 created the need for a licensing authority to exercise the functions laid down in the Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 1996.

The 1995 Act requires the Secretary of State to designate someone as the licensing authority (AALA) – initially this was the private company TQS Ltd, based in Cardiff. TQS acted as the authority until 2007, when the HSE were designated as the licensing authority.  Between 2007 and 2020 the licensing authority (HSE) contracted TQS to provide most of the required administrative and inspection functions on their behalf. During this period TQS were known as the licensing service (AALS)

This means that from the inception of licensing until March 2020 providers grew accustomed to contacting ‘Cardiff’ or ‘AALS’ for all matters relating to licensing. In essence the licensing service sat between providers / the public and the AALA (HSE).

Providers should allow at least 3 months.

Applications are processed by the AALA, then passed to Adventure RMS where they are allocated to an inspector and a consulting inspector for consideration. Adventure RMS do not receive applications from the AALA until they have received a completed application form along with the relevant supporting documentation, and the payment has cleared. Adventure RMS aims to complete all application reviews in a timely and efficient manner and is required to provide a decision on the review of an application within 56 days of receipt. It is impossible to say exactly how long any particular review will take but providers should allow at least 3 months from the date of their application to receipt of a licence. Existing providers can apply for a renewal as early as 6 months before their current licence expires. All applicants can help to speed up the process by ensuring their application is complete with the relevant and appropriate documentation and that they respond to further requests from their allocated inspector promptly.

This is entirely at the discretion of the inspector(s) concerned and will depend on their reasons for conducting a site visit and their ability to find the evidence or reassurance they need to reach their decision. It could range from less than an hour to several hours.

No. Adventure RMS will aim to allocate inspectors to best effect by balancing the benefits of an inspector’s past local knowledge of a provider with the benefits of a fresh perspective and a fresh pair of eyes.

Your current licence might expire before your application review can be completed. In this case you would not legally be able to offer licensable activities after the expiry date of your old licence until you receive your new licence.

Yes, if the work you are doing falls within scope of the Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations 2004. Regulation 3(c) specifies which adults must accompany young people for the provision to be exempt from licensing and this does not include their teachers. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/1309/regulation/3/made

If you wish to add a new activity, which is within scope of the regulations, you must apply to the AALA for a variation of your licence. There is no charge for this. You can contact the AALA by email at aala-applications@hse.gov.uk

To apply for additional activities to be added to your licence the AALA will require:

• Operating procedure/statement – This should include the minimum level of instructor competence required of those deployed to lead the activity and the minimum ratio of these to participants
• Written evidence of risk assessment – covering activity and venue (combined or separately)
• Evidence of instructor competence – matching that required by the operating procedure
• Emergency action procedure – appropriate to the activity and the venues at which it will be delivered
• Evidence of the provision and maintenance of suitable equipment in order to deliver the activity

See also ‘How long does it take to add activities to an existing AALA licence?’

Inspectors use various techniques to review an application; only one of these is direct observation of an activity. Usually it is possible to reach a decision on an application even when the provider is not operational (as long as staff, equipment, facilities and documentation are available to the inspector). Where it is not possible for an inspector to reach a decision because sufficient evidence is not available, then it may not be possible to grant the licence or it may need to be granted with non-standard conditions.

During the application review process consideration is given to adjusting licence duration so that at the next review the inspector will have greater opportunities to observe how safety management arrangements operate in practice.

Wherever the inspector, in discussion with yourself, thinks best.

Site visits should be focussed on whatever issues the inspector has identified during the core inspection for further investigation or clarification. The inspector will try to arrange the time and place of the visit to give them the best chance to get the evidence they need.

Inspectors will provide feedback on the process, but the definitive outcome is the licence document and the report, which you will receive from the AALA.

Where your final report identifies necessary remedial action, you will get a letter from the AALA giving you a specified period of time to address the issues.

If you do not address the relevant matters within this period, you will receive written notification of refusal and it would be illegal for you to deliver activities for which a licence is required.

The Adventure RMS application review process has been designed, in part, to provide you with opportunities to address any issues during the review to avoid such circumstances wherever possible.

The application process, including payment and administration of the form and associated documentation is undertaken by the AALA, not Adventure RMS.

Contact the AALA by email at aala-applications@hse.gov.uk

Licence duration is decided by applying AALA Note 1.03 a copy of which can be requested by emailing AALA-applications@HSE.gov.uk.

Information about how Adventure RMS apply 1.03 is available on this website under – Guidance – AALA – Licence duration

Possibly – it depends who the young people are accompanied by. Aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers etc. do not count. Young people must be accompanied, during the activity, by their parent, guardian or whoever has parental responsibility in law (see regulation 3(2)(c)) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/1309/regulation/3/made

No – where you are considered to be non-compliant with the regulations in some respect you will be given remedial action in your report. This identified remedial action must be completed to avoid the AALA taking action to limit or refuse your licence. Beyond this any verbal advice from an inspector or guidance given in your report is simply intended to be helpful and supportive.

This depends on the nature of your second base and whether it constitutes an activity centre (within the meaning of Regulation 2), and is operated at the same time throughout any period of 28 days or more (see regulation 3(1)).

The inspector will need to see a variety of information to be able to reach their decision. GDPR does not prevent you providing necessary evidence to an inspector but by all means challenge why they are requesting that information and what they will do with it.

Regulation 6(4) makes it clear that the inspector needs to see any such places, equipment and documents as they think necessary for the purpose of enabling the licensing authority to reach a decision. It is also a standard condition of your licence (regulation 9(1)(e)) that you accede to any reasonable request for information from the authority relating to your activity provision. The information you share should not be in breach of your requirement to hold information that is adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary.

The regulations require a competent person/s to advise on safety matters – regulations 6(1)(a)(iv) and 9(1)(c). So, it is essential for the management of activities to be in competent hands; whether this is an internal manager, a staff team, or an external safety adviser(s).

This competent person/s may need to call on the services of a specialist ‘technical expert’ to answer specific technical questions or to undertake the assessment of instructors where they are deployed to operate without a national qualification or beyond the remit of their qualifications.

The ‘safety adviser’ role goes beyond ’technical expertise’. Commonly this role will be undertaken by an existing member/s of management or staff. Where an external safety adviser is required they must have sufficient knowledge of, and involvement in, the operation to ensure activities are safely managed.

The ‘technical expert’ role is limited to assessing leaders as competent (when required) and providing technical advice in relation to specific issues (when requested). Of course, it is quite possible for a suitably experienced, competent and qualified person to be both a safety adviser and a technical expert.

Yes. The inspector may take account of any relevant evidence that comes to their attention, including that from non-licensable activities, but their primary focus will be on your licensable activities. You are reminded that out-of-scope activities fall under the scope of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974, and therefore your safety management systems should be robust in all aspects of your business, whether licensable or not. Where an inspector has concerns about an out-of-scope activity they may take this into account when making a licensing decision and if appropriate, inform the relevant enforcing authority.

Not formally, no. The inspector’s role is to gather the evidence they need to reach a decision on your licence application. If during this process they can share advice and good practice from their own experience, then they will. However, the inspector is not there to act as your safety adviser.

The technical expert has two roles:

1. to be involved in the training and assessment of instructors who do not hold appropriate national qualifications;
2. to provide specific technical input if it is needed.

If a provider does not need these things doing, then they don’t need a technical expert (either internal or external). If they do need these things doing, then neither of these roles require a formal contract between the provider and the external technical expert.

HSE publication L77 makes clear that where in-house training, or ‘competence through experience’, rather than an externally assessed qualification, is used to demonstrate instructor competence then this should be assessed by someone with sufficient technical expertise – usually someone suitably qualified to assess for the national qualification. Where in-house training is used then the training syllabus should be specified by a technical expert.

No. Where statements of competence are used instead of national qualifications to evidence the suitability of an instructor, then the assessment resulting in the statement of competence must be made by an appropriate technical expert. These technical experts could be internal or external to the organisation. Remember – it is good practice to ensure that in-house training and final assessment are carried out by different people.

In general, licences are not transferrable. They cannot be transferred from one person to another or one company to another.

Where a licence holder is changing their name, their business status (sole trader to limited company for example), their address or are merging with another company they should contact the licensing authority (AALA-applications@HSE.gov.uk) for guidance as to the potential impact of these changes to the status of their licence. AALA will review the information and determine whether licensable activities can continue under the existing licence, or whether a new application is required.

It can be difficult to work out who to complain to but getting the correct organisation to contact is an important first step. The correct place to address your complaint depends on whether the provider holds a current adventure activities licence, the type of business the provider operates and on what you wish to complain about.

Complaints about the provision of licensable activities delivered by licence-holders should be directed to the adventure activities licensing authority (AALA-applications@hse.gov.uk) , who are required to consider and, if necessary, investigate all such complaints.

• You can find if a provider is a licence-holder by referring to the public register Adventure Activities Licensing Scheme (AALS) – Looking for a provider? (hse.gov.uk)
• A description of activities that require a licence can be found at Licensable Activities (hse.gov.uk)

Complaints about someone providing licensable activities without a licence should be addressed to either HSE or the relevant local authority’s environmental health team depending on who is the appropriate enforcing authority. More information on this, and how to find the appropriate authority, is available at Tell us about a health and safety issue – Contact HSE

You may also wish to address such complaints to the provider’s local authority trading standards office. Information on how to find the relevant office is available at Consumer Help and Advice | CTSI – Chartered Trading Standards Institute UK

Complaints about unsafe provision of adventure activities by unlicensed providers should be addressed to either HSE or the relevant local authority’s environmental health team depending on who is the appropriate enforcing authority. More information on this, and how to find the appropriate authority, is available at Tell us about a health and safety issue – Contact HSE