The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is responsible for the rules of Ice Hockey. Rules are reviewed on an ongoing basis and there is normally a new addition published annually. These laws of the game are supplemented by operational rules imposed at National Governing Body level. In the UK, this is IHUK and England Ice Hockey.
England Ice Hockey’s rules and regulations are reviewed on a regular basis and updated annually as a minimum. Please see the relevant sections below.
England Ice Hockey is responsible for setting the standards and values that apply at every level of ice hockey.
Ice hockey should be an inclusive, down-to-earth community where everyone feels welcome and can have fun. Through shared values and purpose, we believe we can uphold the highest levels of integrity and create a welcoming environment in which every person can be and feel involved.
The Code of Conduct and Ethics applies to all of our clubs, teams, players, coaches, managers, off-ice officials, parents, volunteers and staff.
As ice hockey’s governing body in England and Wales, safeguarding is a fundamental aspect of England Ice Hockey’s role, and of its affiliated members.
Collectively, we have an ongoing duty to ensure the game is a safe, positive and enjoyable experience for the millions of children, young people and adults who regularly play, watch, coach, referee and volunteer.
England Ice Hockey will challenge conduct that does not comply with its safeguarding framework policies and procedures, and any behaviour that has or is likely to pose a risk of harm to children or young people in hockey.
The full framework of Safeguarding Regulations can be found here.
These Regulations set out a framework for England Hockey to investigate and decide upon such matters and the disciplinary actions that may be taken. For more information, please see the dedicated Safeguarding section of our website.
England Ice Hockey is committed to ensuring a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for all participants involved in the sport.
We have clear complaints and reporting procedures to ensure we are upholding the best possible standards across our sport, alongside an effective Department of Player Safety who administer and enforce the rules that govern the sport in England and Wales through robust disciplinary policies and procedures.
The GDPR applies to you if you collect any personal data in running your club (which you definitely will do if you have any members). This includes searchable paper records. GDPR refers to data controllers (those who own and control the data) and data processors (anyone who processes data on behalf of a data controller).
Data must be:
You will need your own Privacy Notice whereby you can give people information about how their personal data will be used. A template policy can be found in the resources below.
Think about how you gather information from individuals for club membership. It’s crucial not only to use this data for affiliate and sponsor communication but also to inform members about potential transfer of their information. This may include sharing data with umbrella organisations or within the club, especially if it’s not stored centrally. While you can still transfer data and send group emails, it’s essential to obtain proper consent. For instance, sharing league tables with club websites or officials’ data with leagues can streamline processes and prevent redundant data entry, but this should be done with the appropriate permissions in place.
Clear policies on data retention are required. You cannot keep data for longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. You also need to inform people how long you will keep their personal data; you cannot keep it indefinitely so need to decide on a reasonable timeframe for retention.
If you rely on consent from individuals to use their personal data in certain ways, for example to send marketing emails, the consent must be explicit, positively given for each separate use and can be removed at any time. It should be expressed in simple, easy to understand terms and avoid legal jargon.
There are additional protections for children’s personal data. If you collect children’s personal data then you need to make sure that your privacy policy is written in plain simple English and you may need to obtain consent from the child’s parent or guardian.
You need to make sure that personal data is held securely, i.e. that electronic documents are encrypted and password protected and that they are backed up on a regular basis. Consider restricting the storage of personal information to GDPR compliant secure systems and not keeping personal details on spreadsheets etc. You also need to make sure that your volunteers can identify when a breach has happened and that they know what they should do and who they should talk to. Pay particular attention to any sensitive information such as health records. You are expected to keep this sort of sensitive data particularly safe.
You have 72 hours from being aware of a breach to report it to the ICO. This includes the loss of any personal data.