Popplewell Inquiry

Evacuation procedures should be a matter of police training and form part of the briefing by police officers before a football match.

The local authority team responsible for issuing safety certificates in respect of designated grounds should, as heretofore, include police officers.

Early attention should be given by the Home Office Directorate of Telecommunications to consider the practicality of producing a more suitable personal radio for the police.

The Green Guide should be amended to include in Paragraph 11 a provision that, wherever practicable, roads within a quarter of a mile of a sports ground should be kept entirely free of parked vehicles.

Consideration should be given to making it a criminal offence in England and Wales to have a smoke bomb or similar device at sports grounds.

Those managing sports grounds not governed by safety certificates should give serious consideration, with the assistance of fire authorities, to the presence in a ground of suitable fire fighting equipment.

Stewards at all sports grounds should be trained in fire fighting.

In designated grounds it should be a term of the safety certificate that an adequate first-aid room should be provided.

There should be urgent consultation between the Health & Safety Executive and the fire authorities and local authorities as to how best to co-ordinate and communicate their inspections and reports.

Stewards in all grounds should not only be trained in fire precautions and fire fighting (see Recommendation 7 above) but should also be trained in how best to help the police in evacuation.

Paragraphs 6.14.6 of the Green Guide should be amended to read: “All exit gates should be manned at all times while the ground is used by the public and be capable of being opened immediately from inside by anyone in an emergency”

The Green Guide should be amended to contain a specific provision, in relation to stewards, (i) that they should be trained and instructed to deal with any emergency relating to fire or evacuation (see also Recommendations 7 and 10); (ii) that they should be given written instructions about the action to be taken in cases of emergency; (iii) that they should receive practical instruction and training appropriate to their responsibility; (iv) that no one should be employed as a steward unless they have been so instructed and trained; and (v) that they should be adequate in number, physically and mentally capable of performing their duties, effectively deployed, effectively supervised and readily identifiable.

Building of new permanent stands of combustible materials should be prohibited as a general rule.

Suitable and adequate exits should be provided in all sports grounds.

No smoking should take place in combustible stands, that this should be a condition of entry to the ground and that signs to this effect should be prominently displayed.

Fire authorities should identify and visit all sports stadia in their areas and should prohibit or restrict the use of any stands which, in their view, constitute a risk to spectators because of the inadequacy of the fire precautions.

In order to ensure a complete record of sports grounds a local registration system should be set up.

Consideration should be given as how best to deal with temporary stands and marquees.

The next edition of the Green Guide should make it clear that it applies to all sports grounds.

Urgent consideration should be given to introducing a membership system in England and Wales so as to exclude visiting fans.

Closed circuit television should be introduced at League football grounds in England and Wales and in the Premier Division in Scotland.

There should be a specific offence in England and Wales of throwing a missile at sports grounds.

Football clubs should review their arrangements for entry and the organisation of their turnstiles.

Consideration should be given to the design of a standard, efficient perimeter fence, with proper exits.

The distinction made between sports grounds and sport stadia should be abolished.

Further designation under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 of sports grounds and sports stadia with accommodation for over 10,000 spectators where Association Football, Rugby League, Rugby Union and cricket is played in England, Wales and Scotland.

All sports grounds and sports stadia not already designated under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 and having a capacity in a stand of over 500 spectators should be designated under the Fire Precautions Act 1971 as premises requiring a fire certificate.

One authority should be given the responsibility for securing structural safety at sports grounds and stadia not designated under the 1975 Act.

In England and Wales indoor sports facilities with accommodation for over 500 spectators should require a fire certificate under the Fire Precautions Act 1971.

An urgent review of the existing legislation on indoor sports facilities in Scotland should be undertaken and if they are not currently covered by fire regulations such facilities should be designated under the Fire Precautions Act 1971.

Provision should be made in the Fire Precautions Act 1971 for authorised officers of a fire authority to have power to issue a prohibition notice.

Provision should be made for authorised officers of the local authority to have power to issue a prohibition notice under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975.

There should be (1) annual renewal of safety certificates issued under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975; (2) a duty on the local authority annually to inspect the premises prior to re-issuing the certificate and (3) power for the local authority to revoke the certificate.

The Department of the Environment should urgently amend the Building Regulations Guidance Codes in relation to structural fire precautions in new stands.

In England and Wales the unfettered right of the police to search those who are either entering or trying to enter a football ground should be conferred by statute.

In England and Wales consideration should be given to creating an offence of disorderly conduct at a sports ground.

The power to arrest under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1936 should be widened.

The provisions of Section 3(3) of the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc) Act 1985 should be reviewed in relation to executive boxes.

Consideration should continue to be given to some form of membership scheme for Football League clubs in England and Wales.