The Business and Property Protection Portal, which was launched at London’s BT Tower this morning, aggregates data from multiple sources to give businesses access to insurance-style underwriting tools and bespoke risk reports on any UK postcode and business type.
Data inputs include, among others, UK postcodes, business and building types, incidences of crime, floods, fire and geo-environmental events, from which critical risk factors for fire, flood, and criminal activity such as vandalism and cybercrime are gauged.
The last provision for legally mandating for property protection disappeared in April 2015, meaning the state has been freed from all responsibility for business and property protection (as opposed to life safety). The FPA believes that with the government focused on ‘evacuation before collapse’, building regulations and fire engineering, by default, do not provide adequate, if any, assistance.
“Responsibility for business and property protection and resilience-building is well defined within the job description of all those who define themselves as managing directors or CEOs,” said Dr Jim Glockling, the FPA’s Technical Director, who spoke at the launch event this morning.
“How much this is understood is difficult to quantify, but with the majority of surveys conducted investigating the uptake of business continuity planning within the SME market showing shockingly little is done, it is probably safe to assume that this element of the job description is both misunderstood and neglected.”
Businesses that subscribe to the portal can have their own liveried website and reporting output, which can be augmented with their own library of resources.
The launch event also featured an address from Peter Holland CBE, Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser to the Home Office, and was attended by representatives of the UK’s Fire and Rescue Services and other not-for-profit organisations with an interest in business and property protection.
Find out more about the FPA’s Business and Property Protection Portal.
This is how the FPA explained the thinking behind the new platform:
Responsibility for Business and Property Protection and Resilience building is well defined within the job description of all those calling themselves Managing Directors or CEOs. As defined by Companies House the three key elements are; to make profit; take care of your workforce; and act in the long-term interest of the company, its staff and its shareholders – this final point implies a strong focus on becoming resilient.
The heritage sector has different drivers, but the requirements are the same if not more important still. How much this is understood is difficult to quantify, but with the majority of surveys conducted investigating the uptake of Business Continuity Planning within the SME market showing shockingly little is done, it is probably safe to assume that this element of the job description is both misunderstood and neglected.
Whilst we might be quick to sympathise with businesses that fail after a major event such as fire, and the now jobless workforce, the truth in many cases will be that this is an indication of business mismanagement at the highest level – fires happen, floods happen, arson happens, accidents happen; they can all be prepared for in a manner that will prevent business failure if there is the will to do so.
To the enlightened seeking assistance, the UK has some of the most highly developed products, services and standards for resilience building anywhere in the world supported by schemes that ensure through-life quality and function – the challenge is in waking businesses up to their responsibilities and then providing assistance in the most palatable form possible for consumption.
With the introduction of the Fire Protection Association’s Business and Property Protection Portal (BPPP) access to state-of-the-art insurance type underwriting tools are made available to the stakeholders and public to drive the intelligent delivery of risk control information to where it is actually needed.
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