Reading Festival Ltd v West Yorkshire Police Authority

Liability under section 25(1) of the Police Act 1996 requires a request for special police services which the chief officer accepts. The parties must agree, at least in broad terms, what services will be provided. A promoter may choose which special services it wants and will fund, although operational deployment within the agreed services remains for the police.

Services undertaken predominantly to protect the public in public places ordinarily form part of the police’s public duty, even when a commercial event causes an exceptional demand on resources. Special police services will ordinarily comprise services requested beyond what the police consider necessary for their public duty, or services which the requester would otherwise have to provide from its own resources.

Reading Festival Ltd organised a three-day music festival at Bramham Park. West Yorkshire Police provided traffic policing, for which the organiser paid, and mounted a substantial off-site operation to protect surrounding communities and remain ready to intervene. The organiser declined to pay for that wider operation and instead employed additional private security within the festival site.

His Honour Judge Grenfell entered judgment for the police authority for £291,248.64 plus interest. He found that the organiser had requested special police services under section 25(1) of the Police Act 1996, although there had been no meeting of minds sufficient to establish a contract.

The appeal concerned whether the organiser had expressly or impliedly requested the services actually provided and whether the off-site operation constituted special police services.

1. Appeal allowed. The organiser had made no express or implied request for the wider police operation. Section 25(1) of the Police Act 1996 requires a request accepted by the chief officer. There must ordinarily be agreement, at least in broad terms, about the services to be provided before liability arises. The trial judge’s finding that there was no meeting of minds was fatal to the claim.

2. A request cannot be detached from the services for which payment is sought. The organiser may identify the special services it wants, reject unwanted services, or impose a budget ceiling. Each party therefore has a veto. Once the broad services are agreed, their operational deployment remains a matter for the police.

3. No request could be inferred from arrangements in earlier years. Those arrangements involved police attendance within the festival site, negotiated fees and reduced private-security expenditure. In the relevant year, the organiser expressly refused to pay for the external operation, apart from traffic policing, and incurred substantial additional expenditure on private security.

4. Although unnecessary to the disposition, the court addressed whether the operation was special police services because of the issue’s wider importance. The category depends on all the circumstances. Services will ordinarily be special where they are requested but exceed what the police consider necessary to discharge their public duty, or where the requester would otherwise have to provide them from its own resources. The private or public location, any existing or imminent emergency, the nature of the event and the strain on police resources are material considerations.

5. The off-site operation predominantly protected the public in surrounding communities. Its scale and its causal connection with the festival did not convert it into special police services. The absence of deployment on private property and of existing or imminent violence weighed against that characterisation, notwithstanding the exceptional strain on police resources. On balance, the operation was not special police services.

6. The respondent’s alternative contractual case failed. Had liability been established, the court would not have disturbed the judge’s assessment of quantum. Jacob and Neuberger LJJ agreed with Scott Baker LJ.

1. Court of Appeal (Civil Division): The appeal was allowed and judgment was entered for Reading Festival Ltd. The court held that no request for the services claimed had been established and concluded, alternatively, that the off-site operation was not special police services. [2006] EWCA Civ 524

2. High Court, Queen’s Bench Division, Leeds District Registry: His Honour Judge Grenfell gave judgment for West Yorkshire Police Authority for £291,248.64 plus interest on 11 October 2005. No citation is stated in the judgment.