October 2024

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 12 September 2024. The Bill aims to improve preparedness and protection from acts of terrorism in the United Kingdom. Ensuring that those responsible for certain premises and events implement appropriate and proportionate security measures to mitigate, as far as is practically possible,  any likely attack.

The Bill has established a tiered approach based on the activity at each venue and the number of individuals attending. This will ensure a consistent approach across the UK and make such measures a legal obligation on the part of the event organiser.

Key Points

Tiered Approach

Standard: Smaller premises (200-799). Require simple procedures to reduce the risk of physical harm to individuals who may be present.

Enhanced: Larger premises and events (800+). Require additional security measures to mitigate against the higher impact of a successful attack.

Regulation

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) will adopt the functions of regulator and support and advise businesses on the new regulatory requirements.

The SIA will have the power to issue civil sanctions and is underpinned by relevant criminal offences.

The SIA will issue guidance about how it will exercise its enforcement powers. This guidance will be approved by the Home Secretary.

Premises

Those premises that satisfy the following criteria will be subject to the legislation:

  1. Premises as defined in the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill include:
  • a building (a building includes part of a building or a group of buildings); or
  • a building and other land.
  1. Wholly or mainly used for one or more qualifying activity. Must be wholly or mainly used for one or more of the uses that are set out in Schedule 1 of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill.
  2. Meet the thresholds for individuals present at a premises. Must be reasonable to expect there may be 200 or more individuals present on the premises at any time.

Some premises will be excluded from the legislation, such as government buildings, transport premises already subject to existing legislation and parks, gardens, recreation grounds, sports grounds and some open-air premises used for recreation and not subject to additional entry requirements.

Responsible Person

The legislation will require the appointment of a Responsible Person (usually be the premises operator) who has control of the premises and who must ensure that the requirements of the bill are met. They are legally responsible for the coordination of the security effort and co-operation with other companies and organisations and who have joint responsibility for qualifying premises or events.

The co-ordination requirements only apply to premises that fall within the scope of the bill. Those premises with a capacity of under 200 do not have any statutory requirement placed upon them.

The responsible person for standard duty premises will be required to notify the SIA of their appointment accordingly.

Links

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/terrorism-protection-of-premises-bill-2024-factsheets.

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament

For further discussion and support, including fraud awareness training services, please contact: Jonathan Gladwin, Director of Anti-Crime Services Email: security@tiaa.co.uk