To ensure good health and safety in recreational nightlife contexts it is necessary to intervene on the processes that determine the appearance of risks. Therefore it is imperative to know and effectively appraise the factors and mechanisms that can aggravate or reduce them. Effective measures can result in the health and safety risks of venues’ settings being minimised and the successful promotion of patrons’ well-being. However, ensuring that nightlife contexts incorporate adequate health and safety criteria requires the harmonization of many actors and needs. Therefore enhanced coordination between agencies at a European, national and local level, and between the public and private sectors, is much needed.

This manual is the result of the evaluation of a set of standards prepared as part of the Club Health project (co-financed by the European Commission under the Health Programme 2008-2013) to ensure adequate health and safety in recreational nightlife venues. A growing body of evidence shows that certain characteristics are major contributors to alcohol-related problems in and around licensed premises. The level of intoxication of patrons has also been observed to be an important factor. The result is that a venues’ management and staff can contribute to changes in behaviour through the enforcement of proactive practices. Proactive practices can include schemes like: i) ensuring the physical and social conditions of the premises; ii)
guaranteeing staff understand and engage in responsible server practices; iii) avoiding marketing strategies that encourage excessive drinking; and iv) developing partnership strategies to reduce alcohol-related incidents by, for example, establishing good communication and cooperation between police, local authorities, public transport agencies, health services and the communities.

The work presented here is intended to be a reference guide for licensed premises, managers and promoters. For the night-time economy priorities include: no selling of alcohol to those under the legal age; ending irresponsible marketing and sales promotions; ensuring the safety of customers and staff; and, by improving public safety, reducing the amount of nuisance caused to communities. This manual is also intended to be a reference guide for agencies responsible for licensing and policing. No comprehensive approach exists that can guarantee that no health and safety incidents will occur in and around
nightlife premises but there are numerous steps that can be taken to reduce the probability of incidents occurring.