Public consultation on British Standard to benchmark good practice in safety management systems (overseas activities)
News summary
A new British Standard for the provision of adventurous activities, expeditions, visits and fieldwork, undertaken for educational, training or recreational purposes outside the UK. This standard could have important implications for Residence Abroad in languages and area studies programmes.
If you are a provider of adventurous activities, fieldwork or expeditions to destinations outside the UK, or regularly take part in such activities, the Royal Geographical Society would be very grateful if you could take the time to comment on a document outlining a British Standard to benchmark good practice in safety management systems that will enable these activities to flourish. This is potentially a significant document which could perhaps have important implications for higher education fieldwork.
The final date for written comments is the 31st October NOW EXTENDED TO 16th NOVEMBER. You may well wish to make an individual or departmental submission.
A copy of the draft standard known as BS 8848 can be downloaded from the RGS website.
The first two pages are very important as they gives information about the period of validity of this draft; how comments should be submitted; to whom they should be sent; and the deadline for submission of comments.
The document has been produced by the RGS-IBG together with the British Standards Institution (BSI) and a wide range of other organisations - 'venture providers' - including schools and universities. The period of public consultation will culminate in a gathering for interested parties at the RGS-IBG on Thursday 26th October 2006. It is anticipated that this will produce a number of observations that the BSI Technical Panel will then need to consider in producing the final version of the specification ready for launch as a Standard in early 2007.
