PSSA Newsletter - Issue 32

– 16 – Newsletter sponsor: www.highwaycare.com NEWS  |  ISSUE 32 Planning, vigilance, responsiveness: the live events industry cannot ignore these points raised by the Manchester Arena Inquiry More than four years on from the devastating attack at the Manchester Arena, an inquiry into the tragedy has brought public safety at live events sharply into public awareness. Crowdguard explains… Calls to increase security measures at live sports and entertainment venues are growing louder, with time of the essence as owners and operators of stadia, clubs, festivals and theatres plan their re- emergence from the forced inactivity of the past 16 months. Although industry bosses hope for a speedy return to events in pre-pandemic style, the recent inquiry, along with coming legislation around events security, should serve as a wake-up call to the events industry that a new era of public safety and security is about to begin. The stringent security requirements campaigners have sought since 22 lives were lost and hundreds more injured on the night of 22 May 2017, faced setbacks due to the pandemic, but will come into effect when the Protect Duty – new anti-terrorism legislation, also known as “Martyn’s Law” – is implemented. What is the Protect Duty? Why does it matter now? The Protect Duty is designed to prevent a tragedy like the Manchester Arena attack occurring again, by ensuring the public is better protected from a “multifaceted, diverse and continually evolving” terror threat. It demands a proactive response from venue owners and operators, who will need to bring in stricter security measures and will need to demonstrate that the threat and risk factors around the event are thoroughly considered, with appropriate mitigations taken forward. The consultation, conducted by the UK Government, aims to reach individuals who own or manage publicly accessible locations across a wide range of premises, from sports stadia, festivals, and gigs to schools and universities to transport hubs. Upcoming events are likely to require increased health safety measures, such as Covid passports and external queueing, leading security industry experts to caution event organisers not to lose sight of the threat of terror attacks, but rather to take a comprehensive approach to keep eventgoers as safe as possible. Planners should work closely with security experts to develop multi-disciplinary strategies, with a strong focus on communications between staff, on-site security and local police, taking into account the current national threat level of ‘SUBSTANTIAL’, meaning that a terrorist attack in the UK is “likely”. Indeed, the discrepancy between the national terror threat level at the time of the Manchester Arena incident, which was SEVERE in May 2017, and the preparedness of the security staff was deemed a significant factor which led to the bomber exploiting the circumstances on the night of the attack. What else did the Manchester Arena attack inquiry reveal? The first stage of the inquiry, which is chaired by Sir John Saunders, highlights several ‘missed opportunities’ in the security arrangements for detecting and stopping the bomber, Salman Abedi. A lack of preparedness, poor communication regarding suspicious behaviour as well as insufficient sharing of information between security teams resulted in poor responsiveness as the emergency unfolded, according to the report. The first stage of the inquiry set out a number of key action steps PSSA SPECIAL FEATURE