Martyn’s Law. (The Protect Duty)

The wake-up call.

At 10.30 pm on Monday 22^nd May 2017, there was still a buzz going through the crowd at the end of the concert. Thousands of excited young people were filtering out of the auditorium, some meeting with parents that had arrived to collect them. The artist that performed was a talented actress, singer and songwriter who had released her third successful album the year before and was very much a rising star.

The performer that night was Ariana Grande. At 10.31 pm a lone extremist suicide bomber detonated a large improvised explosive device in the main entrance foyer of the Manchester Arena. 1017 people were injured. Twenty-two lost their lives.

One of these young people was Martyn Hett. Martyn’s Mother, Figen Murray (Now OBE), started to ask some very simple questions about how the atrocity happened, and refusing to be engulfed in hate, she decided to dedicate her life to promoting peace and positive change in Martyn’s name.

Finding that there was very little in the way of planning or counter terrorism awareness at most of the venues she contacted, Figen decided to examine the most effective realistic steps that venues should take to reduce the likelihood of such an awful attack causing this horrendous loss of life again.

Her campaign really gained traction when in 2019, an online petition she started, gained over 23,000 signatures. This brought her fledgling campaign to the attention of a growing number of influential current and former senior Police Officers, security experts, and politicians, who lined up to support her and her efforts. Wanting to obtain an expert grasp of the subject, Figen studied counter terrorism, achieving a Master’s Degree from the University of Central Lancashire, and received universal respect throughout the security industry.

Regular meetings with Government officials, and a lot of work by her and her growing group of supporters, finally led to the realisation of her vision. This is legislation, designated by the Government as the “Protect Duty”, that is designed to make all venues take the threat of terrorist attack into consideration, and produce policies and procedures designed to reduce that risk.

No one will ever be able to stop terrorist attacks, but with thought and planning, the outcomes of these attacks would be far less catastrophic.

This new legislation, to be signed in to law by the Government shortly, will be known, more appropriately, as “Martyn’s Law.” Find out more about Figen’s ceaseless work here: https://www.figenmurray.co.uk/

What is Martyn’s Law.

In a nutshell Martyn’s Law will help keep people safe by increasing protection of public venues. It will enhance National Security and reduce the risk to the public from terrorism.

What will these public venues need to do to comply?

There will be a requirement on those responsible for certain buildings and locations, to consider the threat from terrorism and “implement appropriate and proportionate mitigation measures”. Martyn’s Law requires, for the first time, that parties are fully prepared, and know what to do in the event of an attack.

Formulation of effective CT processes and procedures, regular staff training and drills, and improvements in security systems, will be the foundation of compliance.

Who will be affected?

ProtectUK says: “Premises will fall within the scope of the duty where “qualifying activities” take place. This will include locations used for purposes such as entertainment and leisure, retail, food and drink, museums and galleries, sports grounds, public areas of local and central government buildings (e.g. town halls), visitor attractions, temporary events, places of worship, health, and education.

It is proposed that the duty will apply to eligible premises which are either: a building (including collections of buildings used for the same purposes, e.g. a campus); or a location/event (including a temporary event) that has a defined boundary, allowing capacity to be known.

Eligible locations whose maximum occupancy meets the above specified thresholds will then be drawn into the relevant tier. Therefore, premises will be drawn into the scope of the duty if they meet the following three tests:

• That the premises is an eligible one i.e., building or event with a defined boundary.
• That a qualifying activity takes place at the location.
• That the maximum occupancy of the premises meets a specified threshold – either 100+ or 800+

Proportionality

The same blanket requirements are certainly not going to apply to all venues and sites, and the legislation has been drawn up with a common sense approach to proportionality.

There will be a two-tiered system for the legislation applied to venues, dependant on size and nature of the business taking place. Simply put, the more desirable to a terrorist the target, the more precautions and preparations that need to take place.

With security in the built environment and security minded architecture, being increasingly important over recent years, along with security managers and venue operators with far more awareness of counter terrorism, many of the venues affected by this legislation are already a long way towards compliance.

The tiered approach

Firstly, there will be a “Standard Tier”. Duty holders will be required to take simple steps to improve the likely outcome in the event of a terrorist attack. This will include staff training, use of the free ACT service will be popular, preparation of a preparedness plan, and ensuring that all staff know what to do in the event of such an emergency situation arising.

This will apply at qualifying locations with a capacity between 100 and 800 persons. This could include larger retail stores, bars and restaurants.

The second or “Enhanced Tier” will see additional requirements placed on larger venues with capacities over 800 at any one time, due the increased potentially catastrophic consequences of an attack.

A detailed risk assessment and security plan will be required. This will properly allow the duty holders to assess the balance of risk reduction against the time, cost and effort required to achieve a successful level of security preparedness. This tier will include numerous locations including museums and educational sites, theatres, music venues, sports arenas, big department stores, local or central Government buildings, places of worship and other ‘landmark’ sites.

Exceptions

Many sites run on a voluntary basis will be able to come to a bespoke arrangement to fulfil their responsibilities. Many sites will also come under existing Transport Security Legislation which already goes beyond the levels required by this new law. Offices, residential sites and venues that are closed or disused will not be included, nor will sites with a low density of occupation whilst in use, like warehouses or storage facilities.

Support for my business

ProtectUK says: “Dedicated guidance and support will be provided for Martyn’s Law, to ensure that those in scope have the required information on what to do and how best to do it. As part of this approach, we will expand the support available to those responsible for delivering security in public places. A new online platform has been developed by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), Home Office and Pool Reinsurance to support all those seeking to enhance their protective security. ProtectUK is a central, consolidated hub for trusted guidance, advice, learning and engagement with experts in security and Counter Terrorism. It will serve as the ‘go to’ resource for free, 24/7 access, to the latest information on protective security and will be regularly updated with new engaging content and increased functionality.”

Last word

If this legislation had been in place, then the events of May 22^nd 2017 may have had a substantially different outcome. Sadly, in the world we live in today, this sort of threat is ever present, and Martyn’s Law simply seeks to make best practice, and awareness training compulsory.

For most venues, this will prove to be a minor inconvenience.

For larger venues, they should have probably been looking at this for some time now and I expect they will hit the ground fully prepared by the time this legislation becomes law. Yes, site security managers are going to have more training, and record keeping to do, and there may be some physical and procedural adjustments to perform, and just maybe, an expert consultant will need to perform a survey, but what price can you place on the lives that this law will potentially save?

For news and information related to Martyn’s Law, visit the official Government website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/martyns-law-to-ensure-stronger-protections-against-terrorism-in-public-places