Advice needed about reenactment org

[ladyursula]

The reenactment organisation that I belong to is trying to get a handle on the laws that apply to us. For example: child care laws, risk assessments, waivers, etc. I have been put in charge of finding the information. Does anyone know where I can find this sort of information? Is there some special lawyer I should talk to?

[fisicx]

This is a really interesting question. I do Tai Chi and we have been asking the same sorts of questions.

Anyway the answer is simply: it is up to the event organiser to obtain the various permissions for you to perfom you re-enactment. This includes any risk asssessments they might need.

If the children remain with their parents there shouldn't be a problem but if one memeber takes care of all the children they may need a CRB check. Need to check with the local authorities on this one.

The area you do need to work on is your internal procedures. One assumes that all members follow a safety code and are properly trained in the use of weapons. If you can provide documentory evidence that each member has been briefed, trained and demonstrated competence then all you need to do is carry out a safety survey. If you discover any activity where there is a likelyhood of injury you can carry out an assessment of that activity to detemine how to mitigate the risk.

What requirements do your public liability insurers have to say?

[ladyursula]

I have checked on the CRB and because we do not have any one who supervises the children more than 2 days or overnight in any 30 day period, we do not need a CRB check.

We have internal procedures for using weapons.

We are updating our internal procedures which is why I am trying to get answers. Our event organisers differ with each event and there in lies the problem of making sure we get the answers right and can pass them along.

Do you know of any other laws we should be aware of?

[fisicx]

The event organiser is responsible for the safety of the public and providing a safe place for you do do your thing.

All you need to do is make sure you have trained your members and documented the safety system you use.

Don't try to complicate things. For example, provision of first aid, medical, fire protection, safety barriers etc is not your responsibility, it is the event organisers. Just make sure you have good public liability insurance to back up your training and safety documentation and you will be OK. Promise (I was a H&S manger in my last job).

[ladyursula]

We organise our own events, this is why I need to know all the details. In fact, I am often the one organising events.

We have good public liability insurance, that is not an issue at this point.

I just want to make sure I cover all the bases so that I do not get held personally liable.

[fisicx]

Ah, I understand now.

Since you are organising the event, you have personal responsibility for ensuring everthing is sorted. You cannot abrogate that responsibility. But if you have a commitee then you can spread the responsibiliy so that each person on the commitee looks after a specific activity. For example, one person is responsible for carrying out the safety survey of the event location. You can't use a different person each time unless you have documented the change in the minutes.

But you can be held personally liable if the person who get injured determines that you did not ensure that the attacker was trained and briefed. This is why it is essential to make sure you document everything. One simple thing to do is get everybody to 'book-in' before the event briefing so that nobody who takes part can say 'I didn't know'.

Like most things, as long as you are sensible and take reasonable precautions you should be safe for prosecution. As the H&S manger I was responsible for the safe system of work. When somebody injured themselves I was able to show that they had been trained, there was the correct PPE and they had not complied with company policy. As a result they didn't even get compensation. A simple documentation trail is a magic piece of armour!

[ladyursula]

We do have someone different run each event because we have 13 groups spreadout over Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire, and Iceland. I am trying to put together an overall governing document. Of course that means meeting all the laws of each country.

From the other things that I have read, the person who participates in the fighting, is liable because they are knowingly and willfully participating in a dangerous sport.

[fisicx]

Even clearer now.

It's still not difficult. Do you have an exective commitee?

I'd be a bit wary of the 'fighting' bit. If you participate in an official sport such as fencing there is a national body controlling what goes on. There are rules, training, a system of mentoring and monitoring, proper safety equipment and so on.

It is the same with contact sports. Each participant must be registered to compete.

What you do is povide demonsations. You are not actually fighting, there are no judges or referees. You do not have a system where is A hits B, A waits for B to recover before the bout recommences on the instruction of the referee.

Your fighting is staged. Brutal maybe, enthusiatic certainly but not perfomed as a sport - I can't see your registration with the sport's council!

It's difficult to advise without knowing how you are set up, how you manage registation and training, control equipement and so on.

[ladyursula]

Actually our fighting is not staged. There are marshals (the equivelent of referees). It is like boxing with sticks and armour. These are most often not demonstrations for outsiders, but fights at our own private events.

Fighters have specific armour requirements and have to be authorised that they are safe and then they are free to fight. There are practices where people learn to be more effective fighters.

You can check out more information on the group at www.sca.org. If you type in SCA in you-tubes you will see that the fighting is not staged.