Specification for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions, and adventurous activities, outside the United Kingdom
Adventurous activities undertaken without the appropriate training or experience can be high-risk and dangerous, possibly resulting in injury, illness or death. It is essential for organizers to apply the principles of good management to ensure risks are managed.
BS 8848 pulls together expertise and good practice into a new national standard for the safe management of overseas ventures. BS 8848 provides a specification for organizing and managing visits, fieldwork, expeditions, and adventurous activities, outside the United Kingdom.
BS 8848 covers the preparation and execution of adventurous activities abroad so that the level of risk included is reasonable and acceptable. It will prepare participants for the risks involved, and the actions and behaviour required to keep risks down to acceptable levels.
BS 8848 can be applied by any group or individual seeking to verify that ventures outside the UK organized, or provided by them, have safety management systems in place that are proportionate to the level of risk likely to be inherently or deliberately present in the venture and to the capabilities/life experience of the participants.
It applies to organizers of overseas activities including:
BS 8848 does not aim to make adventurous activities safe. Following it, however, should reduce the risks associated with peripheral aspects of core adventure, so that the riskiest elements are well managed for inexperienced participants.
BS 8848 can help minimize risk through:
Those wishing to claim conformance with BS 8848 can do so through self-declaration, or through other-party assessment, or by certification by an independent accredited organization. Potential participants and other stakeholders in a venture are likely to have greater confidence in those ventures assessed by an organization other than the venture provider.
Shane Winser of the newly expanded Centre for Geography Outdoors at the Royal Geographical Society believes: “For years the outdoor sector has been desperately calling for a standard that clearly outlines how to recognise a safe and well organized overseas venture - with more and more people relying on companies to take them overseas, the development of this new British Standard couldn’t be more timely.” - ‘Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)’ The Geographer (The Royal Geographical Society)
Amendments have been made regarding:
In compiling this standard, recognition has been given to the existing documentation on good practice which has been used to inform and underpin the development of this standard.
“This standard, and the way it's been put together, not only enables a true line of accountability but also encourages people to undertake the training and detailed planning to give them the confidence to go out and see the world." - Paul Rose, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), BBC TV presenter, explorer, diver and mountaineer.