Spring 2025

Deaths during activity sessions and subsequent prosecutions are a stark reminder to us all of the need for safety to be in the hands of competent people – if you’re managing things, delivering things,  checking or preparing things – are you competent for your role?

• Have you spotted all the foreseeable & significant risks?
• Have you worked out how to manage them, do these procedures work in the reality of your everyday?
• Have you involved people who ‘know’ about these activities, in these places?
• Do you and your instructors understand the outcomes and have the competence to apply them?

Answering ‘yes’ to all of the above should be a minimum standard for all of us!

SUP fatalities on Haverfordwest weir – Nerys Lloyd (Salty Dog’s owner) has pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and an offence under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act in relation to four deaths. She will be sentenced in April.

Key messages:

• Failure to appoint competent persons to advise on safety when providers do not have such competence themselves.
• Failings in the process of assessing risk.
• A lack of competence in the environment of those deployed to deliver the activity.

Snowdome death – the HSE have prosecuted the Tamworth Snowdome following the death of a child in 2021.The company was fined £100,000.

Key messages:

• This was about failings in the assessment of risk.
• We don’t know how they conducted their risk assessment but whatever approach they used it seems it hadn’t identified the risk of a user of the slope running into someone checking the slopes

Boogie board fatality – Outdoor Pursuits Scotland Ltd pled guilty to a breach of health and safety legislation following the death of a child on the River Tay in Scotland. The company was fined £10,000 at Perth Sheriff Court in October 2024. The investigation by Perth and Kinross Council found that the company’s risk assessment for river boarding did not have adequate health and safety control measures in place.

We have heard a rumour that providers believe AALA no longer require site visits – This is not true!

The Regs are clear that it is for the inspector to look at ‘any such places, equipment and documents’ as they think necessary. If the inspector cannot be satisfied without a visit, there must be a visit.

What the new AALA approach allows Adventure RMS to do is be more creative about how we gather evidence to reach a judgement. The inspector now has more options or tools in deciding how they become satisfied your arrangements meeting the regulations.

The inspectors role is to undertake a robust, proportionate and efficient review of your application for a licence – whatever that may require!

British Canoeing Awarding Body (BCAB) qualifications are designed to support individual paddlers and the diverse needs of paddlesport. However, they are not intended as a simple checklist for adventure activity providers asking, “What qualification do my instructors need?”

Instead, providers should focus on the fundamental question: “What specific experience, skills, and knowledge are essential for my instructors to safely work with our clients on our particular waters, within our overall safety framework?”

Once these core competencies are defined, providers can determine the best way to evidence that their instructors possess them. While BCAB awards can be a useful component of this evidence, they are unlikely to be the sole determinant. Ultimately, the responsibility for ensuring instructor competency rests with the provider.

The regulations recognise just four licensable activities: Climbing, caving, trekking and Watersports.

We all use many terms to describe variations of these. AALA have attempted to account for this through a list of ‘specified activities’ which is simply a form of the licensable activity. For example, ‘Coasteering’ or ‘gorge walking’ or ‘Bouldering’ or ‘Scrambling’ are only licensable activities if they involve ‘climbing’ as defined in regulation 2.

If you deliver an activity which you describe as ‘mountaineering’ which conforms to the definition of climbing in regulation 2 it can, if the inspector is satisfied in all other respects, appear on the licence as ‘mountaineering’.

MT have published a ‘2024 Safety Report’ highlighting the importance of preparation, awareness and responsible behaviour in reducing accidents and ensuring a safe outdoor experience.

MT have a new bouldering wall instructor award – not relevant to the regulations but may be of interest to providers.

Top tips from the HSE for getting your application through without delay –

• Make sure you know who you are! Using inconsistent or unclear legal entity details is the biggest cause of delayed applications.
• File sharing systems & links are problematical – use individual attachments
• Where you have provided attachments make sure they are clearly named with electronic file names that match the one’s used in the application form
• Don’t provide information or attachments which are not relevant to your application and/or the regulations
• Remember the application cannot be actioned until it has been accepted (not just received) and you have paid the fee
• If your application isn’t accepted and the fee paid no less than 3 months before the expiry of your current licence, there could be a gap between licences when you would be unable to legally provide in-scope activity
• Just like the MOT on your minibus, it is your responsibility (and not AALA’s) to be on top of this!

The new model is intended (by the HSE) to acknowledge a provider’s track record. All providers will move towards a 3-year licence, a year being added at each renewal, provided they:

• Demonstrate compliance at renewal (don’t have an application initially refused)
• Haven’t been subject to any type of enforcement action

This doesn’t mean you are now considered to be ‘safer’ or the legal responsibilities you hold have been reduced. It means you won’t be required to demonstrate you comply with the regulations as often as you previously did – at least not by the licensing authority.

We will be introducing a printable version of our bulletins covering the same information, including QR codes for the extra content, soon – something for the staff notice board?