ABSTRACT
Kayaking and canoeing are arguably very safe areas of sport and outdoor activities. For example, there has not been one single death in the United Kingdom when individuals have been undergoing training under the auspices of the British Canoe Union (BCU), the national governing body for paddle sports.1 Some commentators argue that the possible exception is the Lyme Bay incident in 1993, although it is clear that the appropriate British Canoe Union level of instruction was not available there and many BCU guidelines for safe kayaking were flouted. However, as a result of the death of four teenage kayakers at Lyme Bay, a seismic change took place in the regulation of outdoor activities. The victims – Dean Sayer, 17, and 16-year-olds Simon Dunne, Claire Langley and Rachel Walker – were all from Southway School in Plymouth. Their MP, a former teacher, David Jamieson, subsequently introduced private members’ legislation for independent licensing and safety checks, having won a coveted second place in the member’s ballot; he noted that he had ‘a special opportunity to present a Bill on behalf of my constituents, which is relevant to parents throughout the country’.2 The passage of what became the Adventure Activities Young Persons Safety Act 1995 was somewhat speedy, and perhaps not entirely thought through. It introduced licensing for adventure activity centres catering for those under 18 years of age. It is particularly noteworthy that only five industries are actually licensed in this way in the UK, as compulsory inspection is a very severe form of regulation. They are the asbestos stripping, the explosives, the nuclear, the offshore oil, and the adventure activity industries. While the extreme hazards of the first four are very readily apparent, many commentators have questioned whether outdoor activities actually require this level of surveillance. Under the legislation, the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA), based in Cardiff, was set up in 1996 to inspect outdoor centres and then to license them. Rules and policy formulated by the AALA have become benchmarks, not just for the under 18s, but for the whole outdoor activities sector, for schools and for voluntary organizations, all of which are well beyond the statutory remit of the 1995 legislation. There are now approximately 1,000 activity centres nationwide catering for the under 18s, out of a total estimated in 1994 of 3,000.3 Since the commencement of licensing, just twenty centres have been refused
1 Canoeist (December 2004) 16, chronicling the unique death, seemingly through panic, of a 51-year-old novice in the USA in a sea kayak, who was under instruction from a BCU qualified coach using BCU principles.
