Protection of Premises Bill​ - Vedette Internal Wargame

The challenge we faced.

Martyn’s Law, The Terrorism Protection of Premises Bill, is proposed UK legislation aimed at enhancing security in public locations. The law will impose a legal duty on businesses and organisations to take measures to protect the public from terrorist attacks and be proactive in their security planning and ability to respond to incidents. This legislation will apply to Public Venues, Commercial Premises, Transport Hubs, Public Spaces, Educational Institutions, Government Buildings and the Hospitality Sector. Any location that gathers more than 200 people will fall within the categories. On current calculations, this will apply to over 950,000 organisations, including many which will have never considered such planning and preparation. We need to support such organisations in understanding the laws, their planning and preparatory decision making, and how to effectively mitigate and respond. ​

How we responded.​

Vedette convened a team of experts to conduct a wargame into a major event involving different venue owners, hosts and sponsors. It included a senior Fire and Rescue Service leader, UK Counterterrorism specialist, a former UK Special Forces officer with experience in UK CT Resilience, Intelligence officers, Policing experts, wargame designers and experienced military planners This was a discovery wargame to identify and confirm vulnerabilities, dependencies and fracture points; to understand where things may go wrong. Some of this was underpinned by the Kerslake Report.​

The results.

The wargame was dynamic and unscripted. It highlighted significant areas of weakness related to Command and Control, training, communication, and coordination across different enabling elements that would have roles and responsibilities in the security of such an event. It has shaped much of the work that Vedette is taking forward on how we can best advise and support organisations which will be affected by this legislation; and making it achievable to the many who may be deeply concerned over the implications of Martyn’s Law. ​

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