Part 1: Public Protection Requirements Introductory: sections 1 to 4 Section 3: Qualifying events
This section defines a ‘qualifying event’. Specifically, an event is a qualifying event, and thereby subject to the Act’s requirements, if:
the premises where the event is to be held consist of a building (including part of a building or a group of buildings) and/or other land (whether or not the land includes buildings). This means that an event that will take place entirely in the open-air could be a qualifying event;
the premises at which the event is to be held are not enhanced duty premises and do not form part of enhanced duty premises. This provision reflects the fact that such premises are already subject to equivalent requirements under the legislation. However, a qualifying event may take place at standard duty premises;
members of the public will have access to the premises for the purpose of attending the event; and
it is reasonable to expect that at some point during the event 800 or more individuals may be present on the premises at the same time in connection with their use for the event. This may be only at certain points during the event. An event will not be caught if it will be attended by 800 or more individuals over the course of the event but never at any one time. Likewise, an event will not be a qualifying event if fewer than 800 individuals are expected to be present on the premises for the event even though the total number at the premises exceeds 800 individuals. For example, a music event in a large park for 700 people will not be a qualifying event just because the wider park may have more than 800 people present for other purposes at the same time;
the event must have measures in place to check that attendees have satisfied a condition of entry. This could include checks undertaken by people, for example employees or volunteers, or automated entry checks, for example via turnstiles or Artificial Intelligence systems. Specifically, the conditions of entry are that members of the public have paid to attend the event, have a ticket or pass allowing access (which might include a free ticket), or are members or guests of a club, association or similar body. Both paid-for events and free events may, therefore, be qualifying events, if there are such measures. However, an unorganised gathering of people in a specific location, with no check that attendees have satisfied such conditions, would not be within the scope of the Act; and
it is not excluded by virtue of Part 2 of Schedule 2, which makes provision to exclude from the scope of the requirements events that are held at certain types of premises.
	Subsection 2 clarifies that, where an "event" comprises both areas where access is controlled (as specified in paragraph 61(e) above) and open areas where access is not controlled, each area(s) that has controlled access is to be treated separately for the purpose of being a potential qualifying event. Therefore, the Act will apply separately to an event in each such area if the other conditions in section 3 are met.