Am I?
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Who has the competence?
Organisers typically contract out (buy-in) competence for Health and Safety, Security, Crowd Management, Food Hygiene, Control Room operations, Designated Premises Supervisor (Licencing).
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Local Authorities are typically required to ‘Chair’ Safety Advisory Group meetings (SAG or ESAG) in the lead up to events, providing a high-level validation service and ‘no objections’ sign-off for organisers, but hold little or no role in the actual event delivery, unless things go wrong.
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Organisers are presently not required to hold any specific qualification to run events.
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Security companies are often seen as having competence however there is currently no standard or qualification for this – something the Protect Duty seeks to address.
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Am I legal?
As with the Health and Safety Act the measure of what is Reasonable and Practical, or Proportionate is likely to be used in the application of the new Protect Duty. Indeed, it could be argued, the measure of reasonable and practical should already be being used for Counter Terrorism.
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Organisers will need to weigh up the commitment both in time and money to mitigate the risks.
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Organisers will also need to weigh up the impact to the customer experience and aesthetic – such that the measures are seen to be reassuring and not adversely affecting their enjoyment.
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Administrative measures could include:
Specific Terrorism Risk Assessments
Specific Terrorism Security Plan
Appropriate command, control and communications measures
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Physical measures could include:
Metal detectors
Bag searches
Use of Dogs
Increased security presence (manpower)
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Am I insured?
Standard commercial and property insurance policies usually exclude terrorism specific cover, the Protect Duty will likely create a renewed demand for Terrorism cover, which will come at a cost.
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Directors and Officers, specifically the organiser’s Accountable Person, will also need to consider specific insurance cover.
Unless the Government agrees to fund or indemnify the insurance market the increase in costs will be passed on to organisers.
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If acceptable Insurance cover is not available will this mean organisers choose to leave the market?
Are you ready?
Summary from Home Office website on
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill:
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, known as Martyn’s Law
What is it?
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, known as Martyn’s Law, will improve protective security and organisational preparedness across the UK by requiring, for the first time, that those responsible for certain premises and events consider the terrorist risk and how they would respond to an attack. In addition to this, certain larger premises and events must also take steps to reduce the vulnerability of the premises to terrorist attacks.
Through the bill, qualifying premises and events should be better prepared and protected, ready to respond in the event of a terrorist attack.
How will the bill acheive this?
Improve preparedness and protection
The bill has been designed to bolster the UK’s preparedness for, and protection from, terrorism. Those responsible for certain premises or events will be required to implement reasonably practicable public protection procedures and/or measures, depending on the capacity of the premise. Premises that are reasonably expected to have 200-799 individuals on the premises at the same time will fall within the standard tier and where it is reasonably expected to have 800 individuals or more will fall in the enhanced tier.
Events that are reasonably expected to have 800 or more individuals in attendance at the same time, at some point during the duration of the event, will also be captured under the bill and subject to the same enhanced tier requirements. The requirements of the bill will ensure qualifying premises and events are better prepared to respond to, and mitigate the impact of, a terrorist attack.
The Decision Support Centre will support your premises or event
We will do through through a comprehensive database of events, providing expert opinion, threat analysis and support throughout the event’s lifecycle.