The United Kingdom Paintball Sports Federation
In 1990 a group of players and members of the trade formed the European Paintball Sports Federation to protect the sport. The game of paintball was going through a rough time with attacks from the media and more important a possible ban by the Home Office as a result of the wording of the Firearms Act at the time.
Over the years the EPSF and more recently the UKPSF have had discussions with various members of the Government, officials at the various Government bodies, local authorities, Police and Firearms experts. As a result of these discussions the wording in the Firearms act (Air being the only approved propellant) which could have resulted in a ban on paintball has been changed. (CO2 was added as an approved propellant) The sport and the equipment has developed over the past ten years and the need for CO2 as a propellant has reduced.
The EPSF also produced tournament rule books which formed the foundation for all of the current tournament rules in the UK and probably most of the European tournaments. The “Code of Practice” is recognised by the Health and Safety and a lot of Councils as the guidelines for operating a paintball site.
In the late 1990’s it was decided to change the name from the EPSF to the UKPSF because whilst most of the European countries had used the EPSF as the model to set up their own Federations the organisation in the UK only looked after the United Kingdom. There were no representatives from other countries on the committee therefore it did not truly represent Europe. The name was therefore changed to the United Kingdom Paintball Sports Federation.
There are steps being taken at present to form a new European body with representatives from all over Europe on the committee.
The UKPSF is a voluntary body and exists to promote the sport of paintball, liaise with government bodies, local authorities and try to make the game of paintball safe and fun to play.
Site Accreditation Scheme
The UKPSF accreditation scheme is a set of standards that paintball sites can voluntarily sign up to in order to achieve positive status recognition and business advantage, and accordingly benefit from the support of a range of key agencies as a consequence of being an assured quality service provider.
The definition of accredited is “officially recognised or approved”.
The accreditation scheme has been set up so a paintball site that maintains high standards of equipment, staff training, site services, safety and ultimately customer satisfaction is rewarded with an accreditation mark. Accordingly potential customers can identify responsible site owners through the UKPSF accreditation scheme. Sites, which achieve the required standard, will be able to use the “accredited site logo” on their publicity material.
