Posted By Rachel West I have been asked by a friend to help set up the safety systems for a sports promotion business that they are starting up. The event promotions will be Mixed Martial Arts. Among the risks I have to consider will be the erection of a cage(!) for the competition to take place in. The sporting competition itself has a tight set of rules with professional refereeing. The events are amateur competitions and are initially scheduled to take place in sports centres. Now, I am prepared to do an assessment on the risks for competitors among the rest of the system requirements. However: does anyone have experience of sporting events which have an employer and amateur competitor participation? Is there actually a requirement to assess the risks associated with event participation? I am presuming that although the competitors are not technically employed by the event co-ordinator, the risks need assessing under the co-ordinators duty of care? And, most importantly, how do I convince my slightly incredulous partner that my own competing in the event isn’t too risky (apparently, he wants a lot more convincing than my own risk assessments!!).

Posted By Rachel West I think you may have a valid point there....

Posted By Dave Wilson If this is 'NOT AT WORK' then the competitors do not need a RA doing, the RA would be for spectators and event staff etc

Posted By Rachel West Dave: That was also my gut reaction but I then considered the duty of care aspect. Technically, the event co-ordinator is an employer and its activities include cage fighting. Even though the competitors aren't working, they are at risk from the activities that the promoters are carrying out. Pursuing this argument, would the assessment need to consider spectators but not competitors? I'm starting to persuade myself that the risks to competitors most definitely need assessing and minimising. I'm really interested in finding out if there is a precedent for this sort of activity as I suspect it is a grey area, especially for contact sports. I think I may try contacting a few of the sporting bodies that Jeff has suggested.

Posted By Dave Wilson Try the Brit Boxing board etc or even better the ABA they must have something on this, as in essence its a 'fighting' sport, so things like doctors, emeregncy staff in attendance, pre fight fitness checks , medical history etc, indemnity insurance !. The last thing you want is someone with say epilepsy, heart problems, asthma etc getting involved.

Posted By Dave Wilson try http://www.abae.co.uk/index.asp

Posted By Martin Monaghan Rachel, Why be concerned "that they may laugh in the face of my manual handling training requests"? If the job involves manual handling and there is a risk of injury then the contractor must implement suitable controls, including manual handling training. Provided your requests are reasonable, if they laugh at them then maybe they should be considered as not competent to do the job safely. The problem if you decide they are not competent is that you have to find someone else who is! Martin.

Posted By steven bentham The martial arts governing bodies usually have risk assessments & rules etc. This is usually part of the insurance requirements. As such they do not come under HASAWA etc. Your organisation, first aid, doctors, fire, crowd safety, etc does come under HASAWA. yours in budo