What is BS8406:2020?

Whenever you attend a festival or sporting event it can be easy to forget that behind the scenes there is a whole army of people making sure that everyone has a good time and remains safe.

For event organisers there are million and one things to think about and so it makes sense that there is a British Standard that covers this sector.

BS8406:2020 is the latest iteration of the standard that covers event stewarding, organisation and recruitment and applies to companies that supply event organisers.

In this post we wanted to give readers an overview of what BS8406 actually is and to point you in the direction of some useful resources we have produced.

In this post;

What is BS8406
It’s not just about safety
Why you may want to adopt BS8406:2020
Next steps

What is BS8406?

BS 840:2020 is the latest British Standard that deals with event management and in particular the provision of stewarding and security staff.

It ensures that you as the supplier understands what the client wants, what resources you need to supply and how to manage them on site.

The standard also covers the recruitment and training process for staff that you supply.

Although the standard deals explicitly with the provision of temporary staff for events, many of the recommendations work equally well in other parts of the business.

BS8406 is actually a composite standard meaning that it references other standards such as BS7578 which means that if you want to comply then you have to buy all of the standards that relate however we have a cheeky get around for that later in the article!

It’s not just about safety

A lot of this particular standard deals with safety, both of staff members and the public on site.

But that’s not all. It also includes recommendations for pre-event planning, site management, surveys, documentation and post event lessons learned.

This means that it is a very useful standard and can help with practical measures to help your business run smoother.

Why you may want to adopt BS8406:2020

BS8406:2020 sets out best practice and whilst it isn’t law, you might decide that it is a good idea to adopt it anyway.

The first reason is that many clients are asking for it. Often governing bodies for sporting events might require that their members adopt the standard which of course means that you as a supplier will need to do so too.

You may also find that one of the seemingly innocuous questions on your insurance renewals asks if you use the standard. Insurers know that companies applying relevant British Standards are a much safer bet than those that don’t.

We’d argue that many of the parts of BS8406 are simply good practice and sensible business policy. For example documenting a site visit before the event. So adopting the standard could actually help your business with its administration.

And companies that adopt the standard of their own volition can easily find that they develop a competitive advantage over their peers especially when they are in a bid or tender process.

The question shouldn’t be ‘why would you adopt BS8406?’ but ‘Why wouldn’t you?’.

Next steps

OK so we hope that we have convinced you to look carefully at BS8406:2020.

You can do one of three things;

Get a consultant – likely to be expensive and frankly you may not need one
Download the British Standards – you can find them here but expect to shell out around £1k for the full set
Contact us

Need security staff screening?

We are experts in screening security and stewarding staff to BS7858 (the one you need for BS8406) and we can help you with DBS, right to work and any other form of pre-employment screening.