Conor Cunningham M1
M1
Important of meeting organisational and legal requirements when organising an event
Meeting organisational and legal requirements when organising an event is extremely
important. The event organiser must ensure that these organisational and legal
requirements are met and ways in which they do this will be explored below.
Organisational procedures – Organisations will usually have a set of procedures that they
follow for the events they carry out and these procedures change depending on the size of
the organisation, the type of event that is taking place and who is involved in the event. A
business meeting may only require an employee to let their line manager know that it is
taking place as part of the organisations procedures. However, a business conference may
need to be agreed by the chief executive or managing director. It is the role of the event
organiser to seek clarification that the event can take place
under the organisations procedures. Procedures for signing off
events will depend on the purpose of the event and the
potential effect of the event on the organisations reputation. If
there are too high of expenses involved with running the event,
the finance manager or director may need to authorise the event
and confirm that there is money available for this purpose.
As the organiser of the event, they will need to know who must give authority for any event
and the forms that need to be completed. They should also follow the procedures for the
organisation or they could get into serious trouble, especially if something goes wrong
before, during or after the event. It is fundamental that the organisational requirements are
followed by the event organiser when planning a business event. Legal requirements will be
looked at below and the importance of them being met when planning a business event.
Current legal requirements including contracts, agreements and consumer protection –
When organising an event, there are a number of important legal requirements that need to
be considered. These include contractual, health and safety and age requirements. Most
legal requirements are covered by a contractual agreement that will be agreed either
verbally or in writing. The contract will set out the offer and prices for the individual
elements of the event including;
Venue
Catering
Insurance
Advertising/Promotion
Separate agreements can be made with outside suppliers and may include those used for
booking a hotel venue or for hiring equipment.
Legalities with regards to organising an event
,Conor Cunningham M1
The Event Safety Guide aims to help everyone who organises events so that events run
safely. The guide will enable event organisers to understand the needs of others concerned
with the event, such as local authorities and the emergency services, so that they can all
work together to improve event safety. This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety
Executive. Considerations in relation to this include;
Planning and management
Venue and site design
Fire safety
Major incident planning (emergency planning)
Communication
Crowd management
Transport management
Structures
Barriers
Electrical installations and lighting
Food, drink and water
Merchandising and special licensing
Amusements, attractions and promotional displays
Sanitary facilities
Areas where legislation is required include risk, stress, slips and trips, temperature, work at
height, electricity, first aid, noise, and gas as well as work equipment.
The Health and Safety at Work Act is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational
health and safety in Great Britain. The Health and Safety Executive, with local authorities
(and other enforcing authorities) are responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of
other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment. This is why it is
so important for event organisers to meet legal requirements when organising an event. For
example, carrying out a risk assessment.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require all employers and
self-employed people to assess the risks to workers and others who may be affected by
their work. A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather
about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace. For example, a
fashion show in SRC would require a risk assessment for aspects of the event such as the
risk of people tripping or falling, to identify the capacity of people who can attend the event
and the place where the event is going to be held. A risk assessment will help you decide
, Conor Cunningham M1
whether you have covered all you need to. Carrying out a risk assessment is so important in
meeting organisational and legal requirements when organising an event. An example of a
hard identification, risk assessment and action plan for an event in Southern Regional
College can be seen below;
To assess the risks in your workplace and in order to meet the organisational and legal
requirements for organising an event include identifying the hazards, deciding who might be
harmed and how, evaluating the risk and deciding on precautions, recording your significant
finings and reviewing your assessment and update if necessary.
Every day of our lives we consume, use, or simply come into contact with countless different
products and such products may be on offer at an event so it is important that the event
organiser meets the organisational legal requirements for such products and services. We
should be able to assume that those products are safe. The aim of the Consumer Protection
Act 1987 is to help safeguard the consumer from products that do not reach a reasonable
level of safety. Under this act, people injured by defective products may have the right to
sue for damages. For example, if a product is sold at an event which proves to be a risk to
the public and causes a person injury, they may be liable to sue for damages. For example, if
SRC are selling a product such as chicken which is undercooked and causes a person food
poisoning, they have breached the Consumer Protection Act. Product liability is the term
given to laws affecting those rights.
