Safety certificates, the Green Guide and Martyn's Law, UK wide
Stadia and Venues Health and Safety
A stadium concentrates tens of thousands of people into a fixed structure for a fixed period, with the highest risk in the twenty minutes before kick off and the ten minutes after the final whistle. AL23 Safety provides health and safety, fire safety and fire engineering support to sports grounds, arenas, concert venues and event operators across the UK.
Why it matters in stadia and venues
The risks are real and so are the duties
The certification regime in this sector was written after disasters. The Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 followed a sequence of crowd failures at football grounds. The Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987 followed the Bradford City fire of 11 May 1985. The Football Spectators Act 1989 followed Hillsborough on 15 April 1989. Every clause in a modern safety certificate traces back to one of those events, which is why certifying authorities enforce conditions literally rather than in spirit.
The commercial consequence is that capacity is a legal output, not a design figure. Under the Green Guide method the safe capacity of an area is not the number of seats installed. It is the holding capacity adjusted by an assessment of physical condition and safety management and the certifying authority can and does reduce it. Grounds that have not reassessed capacity after a change of stand, turnstile, steward provision or management structure are carrying a figure that no longer holds.
The main risks
Where the harm comes from
Ingress and egress crowding
Constrictions at turnstiles, concourse junctions and stair landings create the density and counterflow conditions in which crowd collapse occurs.
Zone Ex
The area outside the stadium line where spectators arrive, queue and disperse is often the least controlled ground in the operation and sits outside the certificated footprint.
Structural condition of stands and barriers
Terrace barriers, crush barriers, seat fixings and cantilever structures degrade quietly and are the first thing an inspecting officer will ask to see records for.
Fire in concourses and back of house
Catering concessions, storage under stands and cable routes into a densely occupied structure carry the Bradford lesson directly.
Temporary demountable structures
Stages, grandstands, marquees, big screens and delay towers are the highest consequence element of any event build and depend on wind management and completion certification.
Steward numbers and competence
A certificate assumes a staffing model. Sickness, late arrivals and agency substitution quietly erode it on the day of the event.
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
The Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 allows the Secretary of State to designate a sports ground as requiring a general safety certificate. The threshold is accommodation for more than 10,000 spectators or more than 5,000 at grounds hosting Premier League or English Football League matches. A sports ground for these purposes is a place where sport takes place in the open air with spectator accommodation, which is why indoor arenas fall outside it. Local authorities issue and enforce general safety certificates, along with special safety certificates for individual events, supported by the Safety of Sports Grounds Regulations 1987, SI 1987/1941. The Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987 then extends certification to regulated stands, meaning covered stands with accommodation for more than 500 spectators at grounds that are not designated. That catches a very large number of non-league football, rugby, cricket and community grounds whose operators do not realise they need a certificate at all. The Football Spectators Act 1989 established the licensing regime for designated football matches, administered by the Sports Grounds Safety Authority since it replaced the Football Licensing Authority in 2011. Outside the certificated areas the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 applies throughout, including section 3 duties towards spectators.
General safety certificate
Held by the operator, conditions enforced by the local authority as certifying authority, covering capacity, stewarding, records and pre-event checks.
Regulated stand certificate
Required for a covered stand for more than 500 spectators at a non-designated ground, separately from any other permission you hold.
SGSA licence conditions
The mechanism through which the all-seater requirement and licensed standing operate at designated football grounds.
Fire Safety Order article 17
Fire safety measures maintained in an efficient state and in good repair across concourses, back of house and hospitality.
Martyn's Law
Enhanced tier duties for premises reasonably expecting 800 or more individuals, not yet in force.
Capacity, the Green Guide and Safety Advisory Groups
Why safe capacity is a legal output not a seat count
The reference document is the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds, sixth edition, published in 2018. It introduced the concept of Zone Ex, the areas outside the stadium where spectators arrive and depart and it remains the benchmark for safe capacity, circulation, structural design, fire safety, medical provision and communications. The next edition is not due until 2028 or 2029 so the Sports Grounds Safety Authority supplementary guidance is doing the work of keeping the regime current, in particular SG01 Safe standing in seated areas, second edition July 2022, SG03 Event Safety Management and the Guide to Safety Certification of November 2018.
Safe capacity is calculated through the P factor and the S factor. The P factor scores the physical condition of the viewing accommodation and its associated ingress, egress and circulation. The S factor scores the quality of safety management. Both run from 0.0 to 1.0, where 1.0 is a high standard and 0.0 produces no capacity at all for that area. The assessment is a considered and reasonable overall judgement made by a competent person with knowledge of the ground, not an arithmetic total. The lower of the two factors is applied to the holding capacity so an area with a theoretical holding capacity of 1,000 and a P factor of 0.6 has a final safe capacity of 600. The same test is then applied to entry capacity and exit capacity and the final safe capacity is the lowest of the three. We do not publish the numeric crowd density and flow rates from the Green Guide, since those figures sit inside a paid document. We work from your copy of the guide and show the calculation in your own assessment.
Licensed standing in seated areas operates through SGSA licence conditions. The criteria published in October 2022 require barriers or independent seats with integral barriers, with proof of load testing on a minimum of five per cent of the installation, one seat or space per spectator, seats that cannot be locked in either position, clearly identified individual seats and rows, full CCTV coverage to Green Guide standards, no adverse effect on adjoining sightlines or on disabled spectators, availability to both home and away supporters, notification to ticket purchasers at the point of sale, a code of conduct, briefed and trained staff and formally documented Safety Advisory Group consultation.
Safety Advisory Groups are worth understanding correctly. A SAG is a non-statutory multi-agency group convened by the local authority, typically bringing together safety at sports grounds officers, environmental health, licensing, highways, emergency planning, police, fire and rescue, ambulance, the operator and where relevant the SGSA. A SAG advises. It does not certify and it does not licence. Legal responsibility stays with the certifying authority and with you. Treating a SAG minute as approval is a recurring and expensive mistake.
Fire safety in stadia and venues
The ignition sits where the crowd never looks
Fire risk in a stadium is concentrated where the public are not looking. Catering concessions with hot oil, storage beneath stands, plant rooms, cable routes and hospitality kitchens generate the ignition sources, while the occupied volume above them depends on exit routes that also serve as normal circulation. We assess the whole footprint, including the areas covered by the safety certificate and the areas outside it and we write the evacuation arrangements to work alongside the certificate rather than in a separate document. That includes the interface between an evacuation and an invacuation decision, which is the point at which fire strategy and counter-terrorism planning meet. Where the venue holds concerts and non-sporting events, the fire evacuation plans have to cover a very different floor layout and audience profile from a match day.
For events outside the certification regime the reference set is HSE event safety guidance and the industry Purple Guide, referred to here by name only since edition detail should be confirmed against the publisher. The highest consequence element is the temporary demountable structure, which needs structural design, a wind management plan with defined trigger speeds and an independent completion certificate before handover. Our temporary works coordination support covers that chain from design check to sign off. Crowd flow at ingress and egress, rigging and work at height, temporary electrical distribution and generators, pyrotechnics and medical provision complete the picture.
Martyn's Law is the change everyone is planning for. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025 but the substantive duties are not yet in force. Only preparatory provisions have commenced and government policy is an implementation period of at least 24 months so go live is expected in spring 2027. That is an expectation rather than a statutory date. Sports grounds fall within the Schedule 1 qualifying uses and a venue reasonably expecting 800 or more individuals at the same time is enhanced tier. Both tiers must notify the Security Industry Authority and put in place public protection procedures covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Enhanced tier venues must additionally implement public protection measures addressing monitoring of the premises and their vicinity, movement of individuals into and within the premises, physical safety and security and security of information, document the assessment and provide it to the SIA and where the responsible person is a body, designate a senior responsible individual. Home Office statutory guidance was published on 15 April 2026. Final SIA guidance is due in autumn 2026 and has not appeared. The right move now is integration with your existing emergency plan and your emergency planning and business continuity arrangements, not a parallel document.
How we help
Built around your operation
We work to the fixture list and the event calendar. Inspections, capacity reviews and document work land in the close season or between event blocks rather than during a live operation.
- Safety certificate reviews for designated grounds and regulated stands, including whether you need a certificate at all.
- Safe capacity assessment support using the Green Guide P and S factor method, with the calculation evidenced area by area.
- Annual and pre-event inspection regimes, structural inspection scheduling for stands and barriers and the record set an inspecting officer will ask for.
- Safety Advisory Group preparation, submissions and follow-up actions.
- Event safety management for non-certificated events, including temporary demountable structures, wind management and completion certification.
- Fire risk assessment across the full footprint, evacuation and invacuation arrangements and steward briefing material.
- Martyn's Law readiness for standard and enhanced tier, integrated with the existing emergency plan.
- Incident debriefs and post-event learning turned into revised procedures rather than a report nobody reads.
Why AL23 Safety
Sector-aware support that gets used
Accountable
If your capacity figure is not supported by a current P and S assessment, we tell you before the certifying authority does.
One team, three disciplines
Health and safety, fire safety and fire engineering in-house, which matters when an evacuation question needs modelling rather than an opinion.
Practical, not just compliant
Procedures written for the safety officer and the steward on the turnstile, in language that works at 14:45 on a match day.
Nationwide
We support sports grounds, arenas and venue operators across the UK from our Manchester base.
Get in touch
Sort it in the close season, not the week of the fixture
Tell us what you operate, what your certificate says and when the venue is quiet. We will build the programme around that window.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usIf your ground is designated you need a general safety certificate and designation applies at accommodation for more than 10,000 spectators or more than 5,000 for grounds hosting Premier League or EFL matches. Separately, any covered stand accommodating more than 500 spectators at a non-designated ground is a regulated stand and needs its own certificate under the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987. The second point catches many community and non-league grounds by surprise.
The certifying authority sets it, using the Green Guide method. Safe capacity is the holding capacity adjusted by the lower of your P factor and your S factor, then tested again against entry and exit capacity, with the lowest of the three governing. Improving safety management can raise the S factor without any building work, which is often the quickest route to recovering lost capacity.
Not yet. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 has Royal Assent but the substantive duties have not commenced. Implementation is expected in spring 2027, which is a policy expectation rather than a fixed statutory date. A stadium expecting 800 or more people will be enhanced tier so the sensible preparation now is to map the four public protection procedures and the four categories of public protection measures onto your existing emergency plan.
The drivers are capacity, the number of separate stands or halls, whether a safe capacity reassessment is needed and whether the venue holds non-sporting events with different layouts. A single fire risk assessment on a small ground is a short job. A full certificate review with a P and S assessment across several stands runs over several weeks. Pay as you go is £95 per hour or £695 per day plus VAT. Call us and we will price it against the actual venue rather than guess.
Related services