Short answer – yes.
Longer answer – Since the fire reform regulations came into force the onus has been very much on the ‘responsible person’, if that is you then regardless of whether you did the risk assessment yourself or not it is very much your affair, so your interests will be best served by being very involved even if you get a contractor in.
Sad to see the Windmill close its doors for the last time. Nothing to do with compliance matters this time, just the state of the industry and the reality that the most valuable thing about many pubs these days is the land they are sat on.
There are a few locally that are about to be built on, the Fernhill in Preesall and the Royal Oak in Poulton, now the Windmill and the Mariners has been a heap of rubble for some time, with surely more to come.
I’m not normally one to shed a tear over pub closures, the market decides what is viable and those that are not need to be something else. There is something sad about a community pub like the Windmill coming the the end of its life though, particularly to be replaced by a Tesco. Just what we need, another supermarket…
It occurred to us this week that, given that it usually costs an awful lot of money to engage a consultant, some business operators may have pre-conceived ideas about the cost of buying in risk assessment services.
The system we use is based on a piece of software that we have developed in-house. This means that the reporting system is quick and easy to use, we print reports on site and have not yet found a site that we could not do a thorough risk assessment on in a single day.
Given that the task only takes a day, we offer the service at £250 plus the dreaded VAT. This is for a licensing risk assessment, a health and safety risk assessment or a fire risk assessment.
We also have the ability to produce a health and safety policy and COSHH assessments on site plus a large selection of notices and signs as may be needed.
There are no hidden costs, we don’t try to stick you for extras. If you want to save some money and do your own risk assessments we can supply a pack with templates in for £75.
In either case, whether we do the job for you or you buy a pack and do the risk assessment yourself, there is a forum within the website with good information already posted and where you can find some help and support.
This question reared its head this week and the answer is, almost inevitably, probably you.
There are a gazillion possible scenarios, so let’s just have a look at a couple 
1 Contractor is appointed without you checking on their health and safety arrangements, competence to do the job and insurance. If there is an accident, regardless of fault, it will without doubt come down on the ‘responsible person’ – you.
2 Contractor is appointed and checked for competence, insurance and health and safety arrangements. Whilst on site, the contractor leaves a cellar hatch open in the floor and a customer falls down it. Has to be down to the contractor right? Erm, no actually. This would come down on the ‘responsible person’ – you again.
Notice the running theme? Yep; it’s always down to you. The reality is that, as the responsible person, everything that happens within the building or business that you are responsible for is going to come down to you.
The lesson is twofold:
Firstly, make sure that any contractors you appoint take their health and safety responsibilities as seriously as you do; make sure that they are insured, that their staff are trained and that they are capable of completing the task in hand safely and competently.
Secondly. When you have contractors on site be sure not to make the mistake of assuming that they will take the same amount of care as you do. Retain complete control of your business or building, and don’t be afraid of managing your contractors every bit as completely as you manage your staff, whether they like it or not.
We have to live in the real world, so what would this look like in the day to day running of a business? Well, how about a for instance?
Would I, for instance, employ a window cleaner who turned up with his ladders on a hand cart with the idea that ‘public liability’ was a medical condition and that health and safety risk assessments were for ponces?
Sadly the answer is ‘no’. The world we live in is way too litigious and for every second that that guy is on my premises I’m responsible for everything he does and everything that happens.
Looking at all the horror stories we have gathered, the Challenge 21 campaign is still gaining way too many ’successes’ in terms of failed test purchases.
We think that won’t change until we see licensees taking their staff training and record keeping seriously, but also until young people in this country get used to the idea that they need to be able to prove their age when asked.
It’s unfortunate but many members of front line staff don’t implement an effective Challenge 21 policy. It may be from a lack of training but, equally, it may well be out of a fear of abuse; ‘are you calling me a liar/I come here all the time/I know where you live’ etc. etc.
In other countries, Australia and America for instance, people routinely produce ID and think nothing of it; it’s just what happens when you buy alcohol in those places.
Until we can get young people to understand that it’s not an invasion of privacy or a personal sleight the onus will remain on the licensee to be vigilant. Clearly, too many are not vigilant enough and the trading standards enforcement officers remain way busier than they should be…
There seems to be a clamour among the licensed trade for minimum pricing per unit of alcohol, a concept being mooted by what would normally be seen as opponents of the industry; health lobbies and the like.
I can’t help thinking that licensees voting for minimum pricing is akin to turkeys voting for Christmas; not really in our best interests.
Looking back over the last twenty odd years it’s starkly obvious where the last set of government fingerprints are and we are still dealing with the consequences.
What came to be known as ‘The Beer Orders’ of the late 1980s forced the ‘Big Six’ brewers of the day to shed thousands of tied sites in a ham fisted attempt to increase competition. The ultimate result is what we see around us; the demise of regional brewers like Boddingtons, Greenalls and Tetley to name a few, the rise of super-brewers such as Heineken and Interbrew, and the birth of the much maligned pubcos, the obvious examples being Punch and Enterprise.
Government ministers were, in late 2009, quite candidly saying that they had ‘got it wrong’ and jostling for another chance to get their hands on our industry. I’m kind of horrified to see so many industry insiders nodding their heads and believing what they hear when the politicians start pontificating on the subject of the licensed trade.
Anyone thinking that minimum alcohol pricing might be a good idea would do well to look back at recent history and realise just what a horlicks the politicians made of it last time, start looking at them with a degree of scepticism and begin to fear unintended consequences.
We’ve been posting stories of licensing closures for some time now so always have an eye open for them. This batch of closures in the Nottingham area look like a change of pace:
Notts Police Force Pubs To Close
It seems that relatively minor breaches of licence conditions are now bringing closure notices.
‘Relatively Minor’ includes failing to keep CCTV footage for 31 days, failing to display details of a public entertainment licence and, somewhat pettily, failing to have a qualified first aider on site.
It’s often surprising just how many premises are in breach of their premises licence conditions. Many people don’t even know that there are conditions attached to their licence, where those conditions might be found, or even that failing to display their premises licence is a breach of their premises licence conditions!
We are seeing this more and more often now and the message is clear; get your house in order because the licensing authorities are upping the ante.
Understand what your obligations are and make sure that you comply to all the conditions you agreed to when your premises licence was granted. There is clearly a new mindset at work among compliance authorities.
Good to see Jongleurs making a comeback:
We are big fans of comedy over here and glad to see some of the old faces behind such a quality brand making it happen on the high street again. Stand by for a roll out of up to 12 new venues.
We get asked this question often now, and the short answer is usually ‘yes’. The longer answer is more complex though, so for those with a little more patience here is the longer answer.
The phrase ‘risk asessment’ is actually quite broad and vague, our pack covers three areas and each area is very different. So, to try and answer the question a little better, we really need three questions:
Q1 Do I need a licensing risk asessment?
Whilst there is no current legislation to compel you to carry out a licensing risk asessment that does not mean that you don’t need one. It can be included as a condition on your premises licence, in which case the answer is ‘very yes, you do need one’, but often times it is something that your local licensing officers will expect to see as evidence that you are complying with the four licensing objectives.
If they come calling and ask for staff training records or a look at your drugs prevention strategy and you can’t provide them then it’s likely that you will be seeing more of them.
Licensing risk asessments are, in the main, not compulsory. But when you are in court looking at a £5000 fine for a failed test purchase or you are handed your closure notice you may reflect that licensing compliance is something worth taking seriously.
Q2 Do I need a fire risk assessment?
Almost certainly yes. Do you run a pub, a hotel, a cafe? Then yes, you must have a fire risk asessment.
The relevant legislation can be found Here and what it boils down to from our perspective is that any place of business must carry out a fire risk asessment. Of course, once you have identified the risks, you must act upon the findings.
The responsibility for fire risk is not always as cut and dried as you would think. Consider this extract:
The person who has control of the premises ( as occupier or otherwise ) in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, buisiness or other undertaking ( for profit or not )…..
Clearly, this pulls managers into the frame as well. If you are running a business on behalf of someone else then the burden of ‘responsible person’ may well fall onto you.
The fire regulations are there to keep people safe. Complying to them is not optional and should not be viewed as optional. If you are responsible for business premises then you should carry out a fire risk assessment and act on the findings. Help is available and there is not always a cost involved, it is a responsibility though and you should take it seriously.
Q3 Do I need a health and safety risk asessment?
If you employ five or more people yes. You must carry out a risk asessment and record the findings.
If you employ fewer than five people a risk asessment still makes sense. Risk asessment is not that dificcult or expensive, and if the worst happens and you find yourself in court then a risk asessment can be the cornerstone of a ‘due dilligence’ defence.
Conclusion
Licensing compliance, health and safety compliance and fire safety are too often left to somebody else. Every now and again though, they are brought into sharp focus by an incident that leaves us all thinking ‘glad that wasn’t me’
When I am training in compliance I meet a surprising amount of resistance to the whole concept. People need to realise that if they are the responsible person and they find themselves stood in a charred building discussing events with a fire officer they will be asked for their risk asessment. If they can’t produce one they are in big trouble, and if it happens that there are body bags being hauled out of the building then the trouble will be bigger than any of us want to see.
There are plenty of resources and help available. We are big fans of the HSE website for health and safety advice and we have found that local EHO officers actually do want to help, as do the police and the fire service. If they see you trying they will help.
Another failed test purchase.
People need to be aware that there is a very active and aggressive test purchasing regime in Blackpool.
That said, when 14 year old girls can get a drink in your pub then something has gone very wrong. Blackpool Borough Council are ten times more likely to prosecute than any other council in the land, but that doesn’t make them wrong.
I don’t agree with the way they go about their test purchasing, but until everyone running licensed premises in the town complies with the licensing laws, and stops serving kids, they are going to carry on doing it.
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Blackpool-pub-stripped-of-licence.4722112.jp
More licensing prosecutions are posted here: