Sports ground safety certificate - Licences and permissions

If you operate a sports ground that holds more than 10,000 spectators, you will need to hold a safety certificate.

A safety certificate may be either a:

• General safety certificate issued for the use of a sports ground for a specified activity, or activities, during an indefinite period
• Special safety certificate for the use of a sports ground for a specified activity or activities on a specified occasion or occasions

Safety certificates: sports grounds on GOV.UK

Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987

When an application is received for a General Safety Certificate for a designated ground or a General Safety Certificate for a Regulated Stand a fee will be charged for 'commensurate work actually and reasonably done' by the council. As each application is different, we will discuss this fee with you when we have received your application form. The maximum fee is £1500.

A Special Safety Certificate costs £200 which covers the cost of officer time in processing the application.

If you change a Safety Certificate we charge £50 - this is only chargeable when the certificate holder requests an alteration - not when we or the SAG require changes.

Apply for a certificate

Change a certificate

It will take up to 20 days to process an application for a sports ground safety certificate.

• Contact centre opening hours are Monday to Friday - 9am to 4.15pm
• Telephone: 01432 261761 (all calls are dealt with by our contact centre staff and will be allocated to an officer who will take action on the service request between one to five working days)
• Online: Contact us form
• Address: Environmental Health Commercial Team, Herefordshire Council, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 OLE