Safety Planning
Laws and Regulations
Several laws and regulations impose requirements on the event organiser’s operations to protect the visitor and the organiser. For example, the Assembly Act regulates event safety, and the Rescue Act obliges the organiser to prepare for and prevent dangerous situations. The Consumer Safety Act requires the organiser to ensure the safety of consumer services at the event and the Health Protection Act obliges the organiser to handle food safely.
The purpose of these laws, and the applications for permits and notices based on them, is to guide the event organiser to consider the hazards and risks involved in the event, how to prevent them and how to prepare for possible hazards and accidents.
Event Safety Planning and Management
Event safety is planned and managed in the same way as other aspects of an event. Managing safety means planning safety in advance, monitoring it throughout the event, responding to any shortcomings in a timely manner, measuring it with appropriate indicators and seeking to improve it constantly. Safety management must consider both normal circumstances and foreseeable exceptional situations and conditions.
Safety management also involves cooperation with authorities, experts and other partners. Even if the safety arrangements for an event are outsourced, the main organiser of the event is still responsible for the safety of the event.
The website of the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) provides guidance on event safety planning.
Guidance on how to draw up a crisis communication plan for a public event and a plan for a safe event area can be found in the ‘Johde’ project publication ‘Event safety: information, capacity and access‘.
