BMC Competitions Commission
What the BMC Competitions Commission Does
The BMC Competitions Commission (CC) provides strategic oversight of competition climbing across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and helps coordinate UK-wide National Championships. It advises the BMC Board on how competitions should run, sets standards, and ensures events are safe, fair and professionally delivered.
Key roles of the CC:
1. Strategy and Planning
The CC shapes the long-term direction of competition climbing under the BMC, reviewing policies, aligning calendars with the international season, and ensuring a clear talent and workforce pathway.
2. National Competition Calendar
The CC approves the annual competitions calendar, age categories and event formats. It coordinates with Mountaineering Scotland and Mountaineering Ireland so that key events work together across the UK/Ireland pathway.
3. Host Venue Selection
Through structured tendering, the CC selects host venues for BMC-sanctioned competitions and National Championships, ensuring fair evaluation and a good geographical spread across the UK.
4. Safety, Safeguarding and Welfare
The CC makes sure events meet safeguarding, vetting and health and safety standards. It reviews incidents annually, checks compliance with required legislation and embeds welfare considerations into event design.
5. Technical Standards
The CC sets and updates technical regulations, route-setting standards and field-of-play expectations. It also oversees digital delivery standards such as results visibility and basic event coverage.
6. Development of Officials and Route-Setters
The CC co-develops training, pathways and accreditation frameworks for officials and route-setters across the UK and Ireland. It supports CPD, mentoring and progression to international qualifications.
7. Appointment and Allocation Processes
The CC manages fair and transparent systems for appointing judges, technical officials and route-setters to events, especially senior roles at the National Championships.
8. Finance, Risk and KPIs
The CC monitors competition-related risks, reviews financial performance, and tracks participation, workforce diversity, satisfaction levels, sustainability measures and delivery quality.
9. Stakeholder Engagement
The CC maintains structured engagement with athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, venues and sponsors, ensuring clear communication and transparency.
10. Rules and Appeals (non-selection)
The CC owns the rules for competition formats and manages the framework for technical or procedural appeals. It does not handle athlete selection decisions.
11. Working Groups
The CC can set up short-term working groups to tackle specific projects such as rules reviews, safeguarding development or event delivery improvement.