Review of Marches and Parades In Scotland: Guidance for Scottish Local Authorities

Annex C Draft risk assessment form for procession organisers

Risk assessment form issued by [insert council's name]

General information for the organiser

We are asking you to fill in this risk assessment form to help us understand what dangers and risks might be associated with holding your event. This form will take you through the most common areas of risk which we and the police might want to raise with you. We and the police may carry out our own assessment of risk and may want to discuss our assessment with you before any meeting is held or at the first meeting itself.

When a risk assessment may not be needed

We will tell you if you do not need to fill in this risk-assessment form. You may not need to carry out a risk assessment, for example, if we consider that your procession is routine or it has already been decided that the procession will carry little to no risk.

Purpose of filling in the risk-assessment form

A risk assessment of the procession will help to:

• identify any dangers associated with holding it;
• evaluate the level of any known risks;
• decide who is at risk and in what way and how the risk to them could be got rid of; and
• decide, where other types of risk have been identified, whether it would be possible to introduce appropriate measures to allow the procession to go ahead.

Who should be filling this form in

It would be preferable if you were a suitably qualified person (e.g. someone who is trained in health and safety regulations). If that is not possible, someone else in the organisation with a strong knowledge of the area where the march is to be held should fill it in. We will then check the form and compare it to the assessment of risk which we and the police may be carrying out.

How to fill in the form

You should work your way through the form section by section. If there are parts to sections which you cannot fill in, you should contact the person named at the end of the form. If your overall assessment shows that there is a high risk associated with holding the procession, you should get in touch as soon as possible to discuss if we can find solutions to reduce or remove the risk. Once we have considered the notification, the risk assessment and all other evidence, we may contact you to hold a meeting.

Who you should send the form to

You should send your risk-assessment form, with your notification form, to the person named at the end of this form at least 28 days before you plan to hold a procession. If you cannot send your risk assessment with the notification, you should speak to the person named at the end of this form for advice.

Next steps

We will assess the risks associated with holding your procession within the first two weeks of us receiving your notification and risk-assessment forms. You should remember to keep a copy of this form for your records and bring it with you for any meeting which we may hold. This is because we and the police may want to raise issues with you about how your assessment compares to ours. In case there are problems, we may need further meetings.