What Health and Safety Concerns are there when hiring a marquee?

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What Health and Safety concerns are there with a marquee wedding or event?
Hiring a marquee for a marquee wedding or an event in a marquee can be a daunting task. There are so many suppliers to choose from and so many things to think about. Health and safety is an important part of hiring a marquee and whilst none of us wants to be labelled a “H&S Facist” we do want to make sure our guests have a memorable time for the right reasons.

This marquee advice article from Cascade Events is designed to give you a brief overview of the most important Health and Safety concerns when hiring a marquee.  It is not meant to be exhaustive but it should certainly help you on your way. If you would like more free advice then please do contact us on 01189 699 553.

There are two separate parts of a marquee hire which need to be considered when talking about Health and Safety. These are the construction and removal phases and the time the marquee is actually in use.

Construction and Removal
The risk here is to the people constructing the marquee as well as any members of the public / staff who are nearby. If you are hiring a marquee as a business then you have a responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to provide your employees with a safe place of work. If you are hiring as a private client then this responsibility legally lies with the Marquee Hire Company but we would suggest that everybody has a moral and ethical obligation to keep people safe.

Constructing a marquee can be dangerous if done incorrectly. There is a large amount of heavy metal to move and lift above head height, there are heavy duty stakes to be hammered into the ground, there are base plates that can be tripped over and there is furniture that can injure people.

What should you look for?

• You should ask your marquee hire company for a copy of their risk assessment and also their method statements. It is also best to ask them how they  were produced as some companies will just pay an external company to make them for them which is much less useful than producing them themselves.
• You should insist on seeing copies of Public Liability Insurance Letters of Indemnity and also check that the company has Employers’ Liability Insurance in place.
• You should ask who will be responsible for managing the team on site. Your marquee hire company should be able to name a foreman or person who is in charge with whom you can raise any health and safety concerns.
• If the marquee is going in an area where people can pass you should ask them how they plan to keep members of the public / employees / children / pets out of the way of the marquee whilst it is being constructed.
• When the company arrive to build the marquee are they organised? Do they place equipment systematically to reduce the risk of people tripping over it and hurting themselves.

What should you do if you have any concerns?

We would suggest ditching the marquee hire company that has given you cause for concern and going with another marquee supplier. It may cost you slightly more but the extra money would be worth it.

If you are set on using the company that has given you cause for concern then you should raise your concerns with them in writing (email is fine if it’s a Gmail or Hotmail account) and save their responses. That way if something does happen then you can prove to the Health and Safety Executive that you had raised the issue in advance.

If the company is a member of a trade body such as MUTA (the Made Up Textiles Association) then you should contact the relevant organisation and make a formal complaint as these bodies claim to ensure their members abide by rigid safety standards.

During the Event

This is when Health and Safety is most important as the people using the marquee will not be trained staff but your guests! There are several areas which could cause problems and potential dangers that you should ensure you are happy with before signing off on a marquee structure:

• Flooring:
• If it’s matting: Is the floor properly nailed down. Are the edges likely to ruck up and cause people to trip? Will high heels get caught in it?
• Cascade Events use Natural  Dandydura Matting which is highly superior to Coco and much less likely to cause trips and slips.
• We ensure that we stretch all flooring tight before nailing
• Roofs:
• The roofs of the structure must be taught. If they are not completely taught then you can end up with pooling. If enough water pools on the roof then the structure could collapse.
• The marquees we use have a Bar Tensioning Roof System. This is far superior to the bungee cord systems used by most companies as our roves are mechanically tightened and held in place by metal not elastic!
• Electrics:
• This is where things can get very dangerous. If in doubt insist that your marquee company carries out safety checks on the electrics with you present. If they don’t know how to then get them to pay for somebody to come who does know what to do!

These are some of the main points to consider but there are loads more. At Cascade Events we work use the MUTA Temporary Structure Checklist which is reproduced below. This should give you a good indication of all the areas you should make sure your chose marquee hire company have considered.

If you have any questions about Marquee Health and Safety then please do not hesitate to contact us for some friendly and free advice.

N.B. The advice given on this page is for information only and neither Cascade Events Ltd nor the author accepts any liability for its accuracy.