Incident log

What you need to know

The plain-English guidance that comes with this document.

• A good incident log protects your licence as much as your customers. When something goes wrong, your licensing authority and the police want to see a pub that recorded it, acted on it, and learned from it. A clear, contemporaneous log is the difference between "a well-run house that handled an incident" and "a problem premises" at a licence review.
• Report crime — and preserve the CCTV immediately. Violence, drugs and spiking are crimes; report them (999 in an emergency, 101 otherwise) and record the crime number. CCTV overwrites itself within days, so save the relevant footage the moment an incident happens. It's the evidence most often lost and most often decisive.
• Spiking: believe them, keep the glass, call the police. Spiking is now a specific criminal offence and a real fear for customers. If someone reports being spiked, take it seriously immediately — get them somewhere safe, keep the suspected drink for testing, preserve CCTV, and call the police. How your pub responds can matter enormously.
• Drugs: record and report, don't just bin it. Finding drugs, or ejecting someone for using or dealing, should go in the log and — where appropriate — to the police. A pattern of drug finds is something your licensing authority will expect you to be managing, and the log is your evidence you are.
• An accident is an incident too — and may be reportable. An injury to a customer or member of staff goes here and in your accident book, and serious ones may be reportable to the HSE under RIDDOR. Your Safety pack covers the accident/RIDDOR side; this log captures the wider picture.
• De-escalation first, ejection safely. The account should show you tried to calm things and removed people safely. If you use door supervisors, they must be SIA-licensed. How an ejection was handled is exactly what gets scrutinised if it goes wrong.
• It holds personal data — handle it with care. Descriptions, names and CCTV of identifiable people are personal data. Keep reports secure, share them only with the police and those who need them, and don't keep them longer than necessary. Adapt the form to your pub and the issues you actually see.