Could Christmas parties need risk-assessment?

02/06/2008

Everyone's heard of risk assessment in dangerous situations... but could they really include your Christmas parties?

Organisers of Christmas festivities in a village in Yorkshire have been told they could.

Residents of Embsay, a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, have been told they must produce a risk assessment of their mince pies – or face their Christmas parties being cancelled.

Council bosses have decreed that the party organisers must carry out a risk assessment and display it at their Christmas parties, warning guests that mince pies contain nuts and suet pastry.

The temperature and cocoa content of the hot chocolate must also be assessed, bosses added.

These rulings came after village resident and Christmas parties organiser Steve Dobson had written to the council to ask if he could use a car park outside Embsay village hall to hold the free party for the community.

Mr. Dobson explains the council replied with: "A huge list of things we had to do. I wrote back, a little bit tongue in cheek, asking if I really had to risk-assess free mince pies, and they said yes."

Mr. Dobson said he was as a result considering moving the festivities to private land, where he and all his guests could enjoy the mince pies without the red tape.