3. Supporting Commissioners with their role within the activity permit scheme

A key part of the activity permit scheme lies with the Commissioners, normally District Commissioners but also the County Commissioner for those with County appointments. As a general rule Commissioners are unlikely to be activities practitioners, so they will need supporting through their part of the scheme.

The Commissioners’ role starts when they receive a recommendation via Compass or exceptionally an applicant brings them the back page of an assessment checklist with a recommendation from an Assessor. At this point Commissioners have a checklist of things to do listed.

The key points you need to ensure Commissioners are aware of are:

• They know where to find Adventurous Activity Permit Scheme – Commissioners’ Guide.
• They're aware that they can’t grant anyone a permit without a recommendation from an Assessor.
• They check that if the recommendation is on the back page of an assessment checklist that the person supplying the recommendation is an approved Assessor or an appropriately qualified external assessor.
• They check any recommendation that comes directly through Compass is copied into the restrictions box.
• That areas two (where not done by the assessor), three and four of the assessment are carried out, either by themselves or a designate.
• That any restrictions they place on a permit need to be justified to the applicant and can’t be blanket restrictions for all permits they grant. This is a combination of the restrictions from each restrictions box on Compass or the form. The commissioner can’t ignore any restrictions recommended by the assessor.
• That all permits must have an expiry date that is no further than five years away.
• That they as Commissioners need to grant and sign every permit.
• That all permits when granted are recorded on Compass.

As well as from yourself Commissioners can find support through resources such as;

• ACC Activities (if this is different from yourself).
• County Activity Advisers.
• A-Z of Activities
• The suite of Commissioner webinars available to them within their role

When permits are granted it is important that Commissioners are reminded to record them on Compass. As this is a national scheme it is important that there are national records held on who holds a permit. This also allows Counties etc. to see what permit holders there are in their area, and allows UKHQ to easily contact them with updates etc. should the need arise. The record on Compass is the definitive record of what permits have been granted, so if it is not recorded on Compass then the permit does not exist. You should also file the back page of the assessment checklist *(with the recommendations and details of the final permit) for the life of the permit in case this needs referring to at any point. Although the responsibility for this lies with Commissioners they can delegate it to Administrators or Appointment Secretaries. If they wish you to help support them in this your County Commissioner will need to record you as a County Administrator to allow you the appropriate access on Compass.