Nottingham – a vibrant, safe place to play

Edited by: Rich

Head of Operations and Business Crime

We all expect a safe environment to enjoy ourselves in when we're on a night out in the city, whether you’re staying here for a few days or out for just one night.

You become part of our community when you visit Nottingham to enjoy our local pubs and bars, go out shopping, and travel in and out of town.

We know that many of you may not even be aware of what we do but if you do need us, we want you to know we’re working hard behind the scenes to look after the safety of everyone who is enjoying our city.

So, what do we do, and what can you expect from It’s in Nottingham and our partners?

The Safe Space Pledge

The safety of all women and girls is a priority for us here in Nottingham, so we’ve brought in a pledge for venues to sign up, showing they are proactive and committed to keeping women safe.

What can you expect from a Safe Space Pledge venue? The venue will have two women's safety champions, staff will be trained to take reports of sexual harassment, violence, or intimidation seriously and the venue will respond by offering support and a place of safety if needed.

The Safe Space Pledge has been developed in partnership with the Consent Coalition.

Download a list of Safe Space Accredited Venues and Supporters

Download our Safe Space Pledge Guide.

Want your venue to be a Safe Space? Contact us to get started.

Safe Space Pledge Training

Free training sessions for venues are part of Nottingham’s response to improving safety in our city. This training aims to provide businesses and employees in the night-time economy with awareness of how to respond towards incidents of violence and abuse to women and girls in venues or on-street.

Best Bar None

We’re very proud to be a part of this national scheme, and (humble brag) being the largest Best Bar None scheme in the UK, because it’s all about the responsible management and operation of alcohol-licensed premises – and working together to reduce the likelihood of crime and anti-social behaviour in our city.

Every year – and we’ve been involved in Best Bar None since 2010 – we visit pubs, clubs, bars, hotels and restaurants in the city centre and assess them on how they are going above and beyond – year after year – to make your night out as safe and enjoyable as possible.

We follow a rigorous accreditation process with venues and with their support – we can't do this without them all – we've awarded 105 Best Bar None accreditations in 2024.

Each year, we also invite accredited venues to a very special awards night, where we celebrate everyone's hard work, and award the very best venues in each category.

With congratulations and thanks to everyone who supports Best Bar None, the eagerly awaited results from 2024's ceremony are out!

Look out for Best Bar None certificates in our venues, if you spot one, you’ll know that we appreciate and recognise that the venue takes your safety seriously – we say cheers to that. They have set the bar high!

Purple Flag

Together, the Best Bar None and Safe Space Pledge contribute to Nottingham being awarded its Purple Flag. You may not even have realised there was such a thing, but there is, and it’s similar to the Blue Flag for beaches or Green Flag for parks.

Our city centre is independently assessed each year to check that our night time offer, including policing, and safety schemes like the ones above, are being managed to make it as safe as it can be.

Nottingham’s Purple Flag, which we’ve had for over ten years now, and are proud to work towards every year, recognises that Nottingham city centre is a safe and vibrant place to enjoy a great night out.

Contact It's in Nottingham to equip your business with our business crime reduction schemes.