Crowded places guidance released by National Counter Terrorism Security Office

The UK faces a real threat from terrorism and crowded places remain an attractive target. That is the message from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office after the countries terror threat level was raised to ‘severe’.

Crowded places include shopping centres, sports stadia, bars, pubs and clubs which are easily accessible to the public and attractive to terrorists. While many of these places are less busy at the moment, due to social distancing measures, this won’t be the case indefinitely.

The guidance from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office aims to help those charged with security at crowded places mitigate the threat and help make the UK less vulnerable to an attack.

It advises that to deliver protective security effectively, a security plan is essential along with a full risk assessment. It is important to identify an individual responsible for security and to identify what are the important assets, people, products, services, processes and information within your organisation. You can then begin to introduce mitigation to reduce vulnerabilities. A strong security culture must be supported and endorsed from a senior level.

The extensive guidance collection covers the following:

• managing risk, business continuity
• threat levels and building response plans
• communication
• unattended and suspicious items
• good housekeeping
• attack methodology: improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
• attack methodology: vehicle bombs
• bomb threats
• chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) attacks
• marauding terrorist attack (MTA): RUN. HIDE. TELL.
• countering threats from unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS)
• vehicle as a weapon
• physical security
• evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, protected spaces
• CCTV
• access control
• search planning
• mail handling
• hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM)
• digital built assets and environments
• personnel and people security
• personnel security training and good practice
• hostile reconnaissance
• document awareness
• guidance for commercial vehicles and hire companies
• personal security
• overseas travel advice
• cyber security
• access control checklist
• CCTV checklist
• crisis response kits checklist
• cyber checklist
• emergency and business continuity checklist
• ethane checklist
• good housekeeping checklist
• personnel security checklist
• search planning checklist
• suspicious behaviour reporting form
• bomb threats checklist.

The collection is available here.

This news story is in partnership with Barbour EHS, a specialist information service provider supporting professionals across sectors including fire and security, FM, health and safety, sustainability and energy.

Free Download: The Video Surveillance Report 2023

Discover the latest developments in the rapidly-evolving video surveillance sector by downloading the 2023 Video Surveillance Report. Over 500 responses to our survey, which come from integrators to consultants and heads of security, inform our analysis of the latest trends including AI, the state of the video surveillance market, uptake of the cloud, and the wider economic and geopolitical events impacting the sector!

Download for FREE to discover top industry insight around the latest innovations in video surveillance systems.

Download The Video Surveillance Report