Occasional big days: the ‘from time to time’ rule

The phrase doing all the work

Most of the Act's scope test reads the way you would expect: the premises are a building, they have a qualifying use, and so on. The part that decides borderline cases is one clause. Premises qualify only if "it is reasonable to expect that from time to time 200 or more individuals may be present on the premises at the same time" in connection with that use (s.2(2)(c)). Notice what the clause does not say. It does not say usually, regularly, or on a typical day. A hall that holds forty people on fifty Saturdays of the year can still meet the test because of what happens on the other two.

The same phrase then sets the tier boundary. Where it is reasonable to expect 800 or more from time to time, the premises are generally enhanced duty; in any other case, standard duty (s.2(3)). (Places of worship and most education settings stay Standard at any size where that is the building's principal use (s.2(4) and Schedule 1).) So one phrase does two jobs: it decides whether you are in scope at all, and it decides which tier you land in. Our guide to Standard Tier covers what follows once you are in.

Two smaller points before the main one. Everyone on the premises counts toward the number: staff, contractors and volunteers as well as visitors. And "at the same time" means exactly that, simultaneously (statutory guidance, para 4.32). Three hundred people passing through across a whole day, never more than 120 at once, is 120 for this test, not 300.

What "from time to time" actually means

The statutory guidance treats it as a plain phrase: a common term, understood to mean occasionally (para 4.31). It exists because attendance is never flat. Numbers rise and fall with the time of day, the day of the week and the season; the guidance's own example is the increase over the Christmas period. The key sentence is that a degree of predictability is built into the phrase: if 200 or more people, staff included, can reasonably be expected on occasion, the criterion is likely to be met.

The guidance works this through with a clothing shop that stays under 200 for most of the year but goes over on several occasions during Black Friday and the January sales. That shop is in scope, quiet months and all, because 200 or more will be present from time to time (para 4.31).

Predictable counts, even once a year

Notice what drives the test: predictability, not frequency. If the big occasion sits on a calendar and you could name it months in advance, it counts, whether it comes round every month or once a year. The guidance makes the same point at the other threshold with a nightclub that stays under the enhanced line on an ordinary night but expects five or six bigger nights a year. Those five or six nights are enough to make it enhanced duty premises, because they occur from time to time (para 5.36). If a handful of planned nights can move a venue up a whole tier, one planned annual event can certainly bring a venue into scope.

One-offs are different from patterns

The guidance is just as clear in the other direction. If premises that normally sit under 200 are swamped once by something that could not reasonably have been expected, and there is no reason to expect it again, they stay out of scope. The same logic holds a tier up: a standard duty venue that unexpectedly tops 800 once stays standard (paras 4.33 and 4.34). What draws premises in are planned and expected occurrences that take the numbers over the line from time to time.

So the honest questions to ask about any big day are these. Could we have seen it coming? And will it come round again? Two yeses make a pattern, and patterns count. Two noes make a one-off, and a genuine one-off does not change your position.

Three big days, worked through

The monthly market. A community hall sees sixty people on a normal week, but on the first Saturday of every month a market brings in around 250: shoppers, stallholders and the volunteers running the kitchen. That is planned, advertised and repeats twelve times a year. It is plainly reasonable to expect 200 or more from time to time, so the hall is in scope, and at those numbers it sits in Standard Tier. The quiet weeks in between do not offset the busy ones.

The annual festival. A showground with permanent halls and pavilions hosts one weekend festival each summer, with perhaps 500 people at the busiest point, crew and traders included. Once a year is still "from time to time" when the event is planned, ticketed and fully expected. The eleven empty months do not take it out of scope.

Finals day. A sports club has eighty people in on an ordinary Saturday. Finals day and presentation night bring 300: players, families, committee volunteers and the bar team. Volunteers count toward the number like everyone else, and both dates are fixtures the club sets itself, so the expectation test is met and the club is in scope. There is more on how clubs handle this on our sports and social clubs page.

If the big day tips you into scope

First, check rather than assume. Our free tier checker walks through the thresholds in about a minute, big occasions included.

Second, put a defensible number on your biggest predictable day, not your average one. Count everyone who will be there at the peak moment, staff and volunteers included, write the figure down, and note the method that produced it. Our guide to counting your numbers covers the accepted approaches.

Third, write your procedures for that day. Standard Tier asks for workable procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, and a set that works on a quiet Tuesday but falls over on finals day is not doing its job. Nothing about a big day changes what the tier asks for. It's still procedures and staff awareness, and nothing requires you to buy equipment or hire security. The step-by-step checklist takes you through the rest.

And if even your biggest predictable day stays under 200? Then the Act is unlikely to apply to you. Keep a dated note of how you counted, and look again if a new regular event changes the pattern.