OPINION
Primary Authority and why it serves no purpose
On the main stage at the Event Production Show, speakers from across the industry will argue for and against the Primary Authority for events initiative headed up by the Events Industry Forum. With 37 years site and production work behind him, Nick Love has a wealth of event industry experience and strong views on the Primary Authority proposal.
The Events Industry Forum( EIF) and Ian Baird from Brighton and Hove City Council( BHCC) are currently extolling the benefits of a Primary Authority agreement to issue assured advice to event organisers and local authorities based on the Purple Guide.
Durham, Liverpool and Leicester City Councils have all previously pulled out of signing a Primary Authority agreement for the Purple Guide.
In practice, it is irrelevant and will seldom be used. Why?
It recognises inconsistences in approach to events across different local authorities but puts the onus on organisers to challenge poor advice rather than tackle the root cause, the lack of competence in some LAs to manage events. This is a failure of local government and, as such, something that should be tackled internally.
Hopefully, the upcoming guidance for Safety Advisory Groups, authored by UK Resilience Academy, will do more to encourage consistency.
Organisers will have to join an association that is part of EIF to access assured advice and will be charged for the advice based on a cost recovery model. EIF wants the charge to deter too many requests. This will reduce the amount of assured advice created, making it of little real benefit to anyone.
EIF views this as an opportunity to increase membership to associations in their fold.
Local authorities will be able to access advice for free via the Primary Authority Register, it is unlikely that any will exercise this privilege unless challenged by an event organiser
Assured advice is not binding for local authorities. They are only obliged to consult with the Primary Authority prior to taking enforcement action.
“ CONSISTENCY OF ADVICE IN ENGLAND IS NOT NECESSARILY A GOOD THING." Nick Love
The Purple Guide is guidance and therefore not enforceable.
Consistency of advice in England is not necessarily a good thing. Each event, location and local authority will have very specific parameters that BHCC will have no understanding of.
The Primary Authority agreement will not apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, making the Purple Guide become parochial rather than national.
It is curious that EIF and BHCC are seeking consent from the Secretary of State of the Department for Business and Trade, the Right Honourable Peter Kyle, MP for Hove and Portslade. This surely would sit more comfortably within the realm of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Until now, there has been no discussion with the outdoor events industry. If there had, EIF would be aware there is strong opposition to a Primary Authority agreement for the Purple Guide.
There is a lack of governance in EIF which must be resolved, I feel that it should step back from lobbying for the events industry until they put their house in order. There is no mandate for EIF to agree Primary Authority for the Purple Guide on behalf of the outdoor events industry. EIF should postpone seeking the Secretary of State’ s approval for the agreement until they have canvassed for wider support.
This Primary Authority agreement serves no other purpose than to ratify an increasingly dubious guidance publication and enhance the profiles of those involved.
Despite several invitations, the EIF has declined to issue any statement in support of its position.
The panel discussion at the Event Production Show looks set to be lively.
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