•tfurthe

Negligence is a term used in civil law when breaches in health and safety have occurred and have resulted in injury or harm to another person or to property.
Negligence claims are closely related to duty of care. To be able to win a claim for negligence, you need to have been owed a duty of care by the person who caused the harm or damage; you must be able to show that the duty of care was breached and that the injury or damage was a result of the breach of duty of care. The common defences that are used against negligence claims are that the injury or damage was caused by an unforeseen accident or that the injury or damage occurred when the claimant volunteered to take the risk or when the claimant was also responsible for the damage.
Recently there has been an increased interest in negligence in sports events where players have been injured and made claims against other players. As a general rule of thumb, anything that occurs within the rules of the game as stated by that sports’ governing body cannot be classed as negligent. Anything that occurs outside the rules of the governing body, but within the accepted playing culture for the sport, cannot be classed as negligent. Any incident that occurs outside the rules of the sport and outside the accepted

Negligence

It is recognised that there is a higher duty of care owed to children and young people and this is something that those working in sport with children and young people must reflect. An example of this is the Occupier’s Liability Act (1957). This requires that
‘an occupier must be prepared for children to be less careful than adults would be in a similar situation’.
This consideration should be even greater if a child is known to have learning difficulties or a medical condition that may make them more vulnerable than the average child to foreseeable risk of harm.

Higher dutj of care

Sports Coach UK provides guidance for sports coaches relating to duty of care. Research the Sports Coach UK guidelines to improve your knowledge of duty of care within a sporting context.

Duty of care

BTEC

BTEC’S own resources

—

• Local authorities a typical local authority will have a role in the health and safety in sports facilities such as leisure centres. The roles can be seen in
Figure 3.5 on page 71.

Other regulatorg bodies

A regulatory body or competent authority is an organisation recognised by a national government as being the body responsible for the regulation and! or approval of processes in a specific area. There are many regulatory bodies appropriate to sport and safety, some of which may work together to ensure that safety in sports activities is achieved.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) looks at people’s health and safety at work. The different roles of the HSE can be seen in Figure 3.4 on page 71.
The HSE visits properties and facilities owned by local authorities such as sports arenas and swimming pools, and works with local authorities to enforce health and safety legislation.

Appropriate to ali activities

There are regulatory bodies that are appropriate to all activities and some that are appropriate to specific