Venue safety audits that show how your venue performs in the real world
Our independent venue safety audits and venue safety checks that test what happens on a normal trading day — not a best-case scenario. Our approach supports venue compliance, public venue safety, and night-time economy safety, with practical insight for multi-site operators and high-footfall locations.
Tailored audits across single sites and national chains, adapted to your environment
Nationwide network of trained auditors delivering consistent, scalable coverage
Dedicated Service Manager support to help you act on findings and close gaps fast
Expertise in Martyn’s Law readiness and “Ask for Angela” delivery
How Serve Legal can help
The Risk
In busy venues, safety standards can drift quickly — especially at peak times, during staff turnover, or when procedures aren’t consistently followed.
The risk isn’t just reputational. Gaps in venue compliance can lead to incidents, complaints, enforcement attention, and operational disruption. Internal checks often miss the real pressure points because teams behave differently when they know they’re being assessed. Real-world testing shows how staff respond when it’s busy, noisy, and unpredictable — which is exactly when safety procedures matter most.
How Serve Legal Helps
Our trained auditors can wide range of high-footfall environments including stadiums, retail parks, shopping centres, and visitor attractions, as well as late-night venues where night-time economy safety is a priority to test the delivery of safety policies, from Martyn’s Law compliance to initiatives like Ask for Angela.
Our venue safety checks can be tailored to your risk profile and can test:
- Customer safety procedures
- Crowd management
- Emergency exits and signage
- General compliance with venue safety best practice
- Staff responses to incidents
Data and Analytics Reporting
We don’t just run audits, we turn them into live, actionable intelligence. Our investment in data, software and automation goes far beyond industry norms, giving our clients faster insight, lower reporting costs, and a genuine competitive edge. Take a look at our reporting ecosystem, combining interactive Power BI dashboards, AI-powered data assurance and a developer-friendly REST API, helping you take control of compliance performance across your organisation.
Make Your Audit Your Own with Flexible “Bolt-On” Features for Every Service
Already planning an audit programme but want more insight?
Add extra checks, like promotional compliance, retail compliance, customer experience, or venue safety, without setting up a whole new programme. With Serve Legal’s bolt-on service, every audit is bespoke to your needs.
Our success stories
“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2008. During that time they have conducted over 14,000 audits to all of our stores in Scotland, North of England and Northern Ireland. Several stores are in very remote areas, as far north as Wick and Thurso. Serve Legal has always been able to visit any store that we have requested no matter how challenging the location. The audit reports are always delivered in an accurate and timely manner and the management team have a pro-active approach and are always looking for ways to improve their service to their customers. We would have no hesitation in recommending Serve Legal to others.”
“We use Serve Legal regularly to carry out tests on our compliance with age restricted sales. This includes tobacco and the recently introduced tobacco display ban. They deliver a reliable and efficient service within agreed deadlines and with very few data errors. They are able to swiftly provide accurate analysis of our data which helps with our training and future testing programs.”
“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2014 and they have significantly helped us to combat illegal broadcasting in the UK and Ireland. Their knowledge, expertise and robust auditing in conjunction with the prompt supply of infringement data has generated over 8,000 leads; which has led to valuable leads for our sales force and investigation team to defend our investment in exclusive sports content. Serve Legal have consistently delivered against agreed KPIs.”
“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2009 and they have helped us to significantly reduce our risk with age-restricted sales. They have played a key role in monitoring our risk across a range of age-restricted products. Their knowledge, speed of service and flexible data provision helps us to sharpen our training and inform our future approach to compliance.”
“The Serve Legal information is extremely useful, informative and well presented. The issues with sites not using ‘Challenge 25’ can now be dealt with the backing of evidence of where they’re failing. I am most pleased with how the surveys are being conducted and appreciate the detailed information provided.”
“Using an independent test purchase service such as Serve Legal demonstrates to the local authorities that I am taking the issue of underage sales seriously. The due diligence provided is invaluable and has played an important role in defending my license in a recent licensing hearing.”
“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2008. The visit reports are always delivered in an accurate and timely manner. The accuracy and consistency of the information provided has allowed us to identify training needs, target resource, protect our business and improve our compliance. I would have no hesitation in recommending Serve Legal to others.”
“We use Serve Legal monthly to conduct test purchases of alcohol, in order to monitor our adherence to our Challenge 25 policy. This is also extended to campaigns of test purchasing on other age-restricted products. The professionalism and flexibility they offer has assisted us in improving our compliance levels, and where required, using targeted activity. The online portal provides easy to read data in a timely fashion for reporting.”
“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2009 and they have helped us to significantly reduce our risk with age restricted sales. They have played a key role in monitoring our risk across a wide range of age restricted products. Their knowledge, speed of service and flexible data provision helps us to sharpen our training and inform our future approach to compliance.”
“Serve Legal was appointed by my company in order that we gain valued feedback from a licensing perspective. The relationship between Serve legal and my business is friendly, professional and feels personal. The feedback we have gained is invaluable to our operation, we have been able to use the data to make changes in our business to ensure a risk free operation. I would highly recommend.”
Frequently asked questions
Our Venue Safety Audits typically assess:
- Staff response to incidents (speed, confidence, escalation and safeguarding)- Customer safety procedures (visibility, consistency, practicality under pressure)
- Spiking prevention (awareness, reporting routes, proactive controls)
- Crowd management (queues, pinch points, capacity behaviour, interventions)
- Emergency exits and signage (visibility, access, obstructions, clarity)
- General compliance with venue safety best practice and standards consistency across sites
After each venue safety check, you receive clear, actionable outputs:
- A structured report for every visit (what happened, what was observed, what it means)
- Practical actions for ops teams (what to fix now vs what to reinforce)
- Site-by-site benchmarking and trend tracking across multiple venues
- Optional summary insights to identify repeat risks and prioritise improvements
This can support ongoing governance, training needs, and Martyn’s Law preparation where relevant.
Real world testing shows what happens under normal conditions — not a staged walkthrough. Real-world testing reveals how procedures hold up during busy periods, how staff respond to incidents in practice, and where customer safety controls or compliance steps break down.
Most operators benefit from quarterly audits as a baseline, with monthly checks for higher-risk venues, peak trading periods, or after incidents/complaints. Multi-site groups often use a rolling programme so each venue is tested regularly throughout the year.
We work with organisations responsible for high-footfall or higher-risk settings, including:
- Bars, pubs, and late-night operators (night-time economy safety)- Stadiums, arenas, and large event venues
- Councils and place-management teams
- Retail parks and shopping centres
- Leisure destinations and visitor attractions
- Multi-venue groups needing consistent venue compliance across sites
About us
In early 2006, Ed Heaver and Julian Sargeson were alcohol retailers with a problem. The local authority had decided one of their sites was consistently serving underage people.
They wanted to check their staff, measure the site performance and demonstrate to the authority they were taking the issue seriously. They couldn't find a company providing a cost-effective service, so they decided to do it themselves.
The business has since grown to become the market leading provider of compliance auditing services in the UK & Ireland, and a leading voice in the conversations around age-verification and food allergy policy.
Our Customer Experience Allergen audit has been designed in collaboration with an experienced Environmental Health Practitioner and is approved by Trading Standards.
Our Awards
Don't just take our word for it, see the awards that back up our claims of excellence.
Elite Business Finalist 2025
Moneypenny Customer Service of the Year Award
Elite Business Award Winner 2025
Top 100 SME Businesses - #8 in the UK
Growing Business Awards Winner 2023
Customer Experience and Loyalty Award
The Golden Grocer Awards 2022 Finalist
Business Initiative of the Year
Growing Business Awards Winner 2022
B2B Business of the Year
Business Champion Awards 2022 Finalist
Business Community Award
Get in touch today with a member of our team!
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