Guide to Safety Certification

The SGSA has produced this Guide to Safety Certification to support local authorities with safety certification at sports grounds.

Whilst the guide directly relates to grounds where designated football matches are played, it will be of value to all local authorities that issue safety certificates to sports grounds under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 or the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987.

This guidance aims to assist a local authority to identify, apply and enforce the terms and conditions that are prescribed in the safety certificate. 

It outlines two forms of safety certificate:

• Risk-based, this is the preferred style of certificate, where the ground management uses risk assessments to identify the mitigating actions which it considers necessary to secure reasonable safety at the ground and records them in an Operations Manual for scrutiny, acceptance and incorporation in a schedule to the safety certificate by the local authority.
• Prescriptive, where the local authorities outlines all terms and conditions a sports ground must meet.