PROPERTY ASSET MANAGEMENT SUMMIT While there is no legislation telling property owners they must prepare for a terrorist attack, failing to put plans in place may increase the risk of future blame.
“There is no legislation in existence that says property owners must protect from terrorism,” said Richard Barnes, counter terrorism security adviser at Protective Security Operations. “However, there is health and safety legislation, and the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 says property occupiers are responsible to ensure people’s health and safety is not at risk.”
Barnes was speaking at the EG Property Asset Management Summit 2017 on a session looking into risks of terrorism towards commercial property.
“You have just got to look at the fallout from Grenfell Tower: the MET issued a statement two weeks ago where they are not just looking at corporate but personal manslaughter,” Barnes said. “As these events have unfolded, if anything were to happen at your locations, there would be a police investigation and a public inquiry.”
Matthew Garwood, head of health, safety, security and environment EMEA at Cushman & Wakefield, said that in the investigation into the Tunisia hotel shootings, the travel agents had also been brought into the investigation.
“Many of our public spaces are at risk of this… many of us in this room will be responsible for crowded space,” he said.
“So, as real estate owners and managers, how can we protect the public from harm and how far are we expected to go in terms of terrorist mitigation strategies?”
Barnes said responses needed to be proportionate – not every shopping centre could be expected to provide 100 bollards outside when each one costs £10,000.
Philip Jones, head of security at Westfield, said it was not just about physical synthetic measures. “I would like to talk about something slightly different: motivation of staff, intelligence, support service and expanding the perimeter of your centre,” he said.
He pointed to Westfield White City, W12, where he has been working with advisers to include counter-terrorism measures and create an integrated plan with neighbours.
“We have been able to integrate our measures [with other landowners]. St James to the North, for example, has no specific requirement for hostile vehicle mitigation, but because we have the relationship, there is an agreement we will integrate our systems and processes.
“It’s intelligence gathering, CCTV systems, the motivation of security officers… The point I would like to make is security is layered.”
Security consultant George Sherry said the focus needs to be on the training of teams.
“The responsibility that sits with your managers and security officers in what is essentially a small town is often undersold,” he said. “What we do is build that level of knowledge and take people from various backgrounds and try to bring them into a cohesive team.”
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