Insurance and safety
Theatre has a lot of potential safety risks in it. Moving large items of set, strenuous physical activity and constant changes of light levels make it important for performers and organisers to keep their wits about them.
You are responsible for making sure that the activities you perform are safe for your performers, your crew and the audience, and in using our spaces you will be agreeing that:
- Members of your cast and crew will work under the supervision of in-house technical staff, and obey their instructions
- You will risk assess your activity, using our template, and you will pass the risk assessment to us
- You will take responsibility for any harm that results from your actions or those of your company
- You are insured in case anything goes wrong
- You will ensure the safety of any equipment or you bring on site, including fire-proofing your set
- We will be able to prevent you using methods or equipment that are unsafe in our view
Safe Set-Building
It is critical that your set is built with fire safety in mind. See the return marked
"Your Technical Requirements" for a full run-down of what is required in terms of fire safety.
Risk assessment
Before your show you will need to fill out a risk assessment using our template. You can download this as a word document from The technical page.
The point of a risk assessment is to help you identify any hazards in your show, to work out how dangerous those hazards might be, and assess how high is the risk that someone might be hurt, injured or made ill.
Once you have assessed the risk, you can identify ways of reducing it, by putting in measures to control it.
If you haven’t filled in a risk assessment before or need guidance with filling it in, you can either bring it to a production meeting, or contact TheatreTechnicians@hillingdon.gov.uk
Public liability insurance
Just in case any member of the public or Compass staff were to be hurt or injured in some way by an accident during your performances or rehearsals, or through actions by your company, or through equipment you bring on site, we require every hirer to have public liability insurance.
The cover you need is up to £5 Million. This insurance is not available through the theatre or council, so you would need to approach an insurer to get a policy.
Your use of our equipment
You can only use our equipment (such as sound and lighting desks, lights, curtain tracks, decking and so on) if you follow the safety instructions given by the member of staff who is supervising your activity.
Use of your own equipment
If you bring electrical equipment on site you will need to ensure that it is electrically safe. This may require you to produce a valid PAT test certificate, issued by a qualified person, for each piece of equipment dated within the last twelve months before the last day of your hire. It will also need to pass a visual inspection by our staff.
