Multitone Electronics visited one of the South’s leading events venues, the Portsmouth Guildhall, to learn how the new Protect Duty will work in practice
Martyn’s Law is a proposed new law, enhancing the UK’s ability to improve public safety against terrorist attacks. The guidelines require public and private venues to undertake a comprehensive review of their policies and procedures; venues will do this by carrying out detailed risk assessments and updating their operational plans. Multitone colleagues recently met with members of the Guildhall Trust management team in Portsmouth to discover how the Trust is preparing for the implementation of Martyn’s Law.
The horrific bombing at the Manchester Arena in May 2017 killed 22 people with a further 1,017 injuries. Martyn’s Law – a tribute to Martyn Hett who lost his life during the incident – signifies a major change in the country's approach to public safety and counterterrorism. The legislation will place venues into tiers, depending upon their size and type of activity.
Andrew Grays, CEO of the Guildhall Trust, explained:
“Martyn’s Law is necessitating venues to take a good, hard look into their policies and procedures; it will require them to review operations and take steps to reduce risk. This will raise security standards at the UK’s entertainment venues, ultimately protecting members of the public and employees in the event of a terrorist incident.
“Changes made by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) are a good example. Before venues can obtain a licence for security, they must successfully complete a six-day training course. Before the changes, this was three days. Training will help increase awareness on what to look for, including hostile reconnaissance and other preventative measures. All of our team involved with security are SIA door-
“Furthermore, the Trust has invested heavily in CCTV – reaching previous blind spots – as well as facial recognition software. Using biometrics technology, we can detect suspects before they enter the building unidentified. We have recently strengthened our longstanding security plan and counterterrorism risk assessment and will review this again once the bill becomes law.”
Peter Lomax, Multitone’s Sales & Marketing Director said:
“I am grateful to Andy Grays and his team at the Guildhall Trust for their valuable insight into how the UK’s venues are responding to these difficult challenges. Secure communications technologies can play their part too, in enhancing the safety of the public and its employees, which is why Multitone Electronics is developing solutions such as EkoTek and i-Message for use in emergency situations such as a terrorist attack. If you are dealing with such an incident, every second counts.”
