PRIMARY AUTHORITY
Primary Authority and why it matters
The team behind the proposed Primary Authority for events say it will streamline local authority relations, enabling a single authority to provide consistent regulatory advice on compliance matters to event operators throughout the country. AAA hears why they believe it could prove transformative.
The Event Industry Forum( EIF) is seeking the agreement of the Secretary of State for Business & Trade for the launch of a Primary Authority scheme tied to its Purple Guide. It would give the Purple Guide quasi legal status with one local authority acting as advisors to the Forum and subscribers to the guide.
" Primary Authority is a national scheme allowing businesses to form a statutory partnership with a single local authority to receive assured, consistent regulatory advice on compliance matters,” says Jim Winship director of EIF and editor of the Purple Guide.
“ This single point of contact for interpretation of legislation and guidance would be a major step towards achieving a consistent approach for organising outdoor events across the country. It would enable businesses working across different areas of the country to operate with greater confidence and help to minimise the risk of conflicting advice or enforcement actions from different local authorities.
“ The development of a Primary Authority around The Purple Guide would be the first time the scheme has been applied to a guidance document.”
Ian Baird
“ THERE ' S A LOT OF REGIONAL INCONSISTENCY IN THE WAY THAT LOCAL AUTHORITIES APPROACH EVENTS.”
The scheme would be led by Brighton & Hove Council outdoor events development manager Ian Baird. Also a board member of the EIF and a member of the Local Authority Event Organisers Group( LAEOG), Baird has extensive first-hand experience of event production.
“ Having worked for 25 years in the event industry, I know the challenges that everyone feels and particularly when you ' re working in multiple regions across the country,” he says.
“ Obviously we all work to a certain number of standardised processes, that ' s the way to build best practice, the problem is you get non-standard approaches to it from different areas. There ' s a lot of regional inconsistency in the way that local authorities approach events. Some of that ' s justified, there are specific challenges in certain areas, and that always must be taken into account, but there ' s a certain amount of standardisation I think we can reach that can really improve things.
“ Primary Authority has been used historically for large groups or large associations to work with legislation. What ' s different for us is that the Purple Guide is guidance, so this is the first time that the Primary Authority model is being applied to a guidance document. What that means is that subscribers to The Purple Guide will have access to the Primary Authority. So, when they ' re in discussion with a local authority, and when they find some inconsistency in approach, or an inconsistency between their interpretation of the guidance and the local authority’ s, we sit as a third party who can enter into that conversation and help to mediate a sensible path forward.
“ On the back of that, we can issue assured advice when it comes to legislation, or an assured opinion when it comes to guidance, that can then roll out across all areas. As a result, we will then start to build up a really good central repository of how you go through these common points of conflict, and that should drive standardisation across the country.”
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