Manchester Arena Inquiry: If the worst were to happen, would you be adequately prepared?

Authored by Pool Re

At 22:31 on 22 May 2017, Salman Abedi detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. Attended largely by teenagers and children, the horrifying result was the murder of twenty-two people and injury to over 800 people, experiencing both physical and psychological trauma.

Following the conclusion of the Manchester Arena inquiry, Pool Re Solutions revisits the recommendations and examines what businesses and organisations should do next, namely to consider if they have in place appropriate steps to mitigate against the threat of terrorism.

Background:

Following the attack, the Coroner, Sir John Saunders, examined what happened in the build-up to, and on, that fateful night, with the aim of ensuring other Publicly Accessible Locations (PALs) are adequately prepared for a terrorist incident.

Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett, who tragically lost his life during the Manchester Arena attack, is the inspirational driving force behind Martyn’s Law – a law intended to ensure proportionate security is provided at PALs. Upon conclusion of the inquiry, she made the following call to action:

“Today is about moving forward and for everyone concerned to learn from their mistakes and take heed of the recommendations.”

Her words avoid finger-pointing and anger, and instead focus on what needs to happen next. The need to reduce the risk of such an attack occurring again. We should all acknowledge in the point she makes, that:

• If the inquiry is to be of effective use, we must make actionable change, or we unforgivably miss an opportunity to improve UK security provision.
• Making such improvement is for “everyone concerned”. Particularly with the impending Martyn’s Law, ‘everyone’ is not just the Security or Emergency Services. If you have public access on your site, you have a direct part to play in this.

Manchester Arena Inquiry Findings:

The inquiry is broken down into three volumes:

• Volume 1: Security for the Arena.
• Volume 2: Emergency Response.
• Volume 3: Radicalisation and Prevent.

The inquiry demonstrates how the impact of a terrorist attack could, to an extent, be prevented, disrupted or managed more effectively, if appropriate mitigation measures are in place. At the very least the impact of an attack can be reduced; all businesses can enable this.

Many of the recommendations are activities that businesses could or should be doing now either in direct response to the terrorism threat or, in fact, to counter other criminal and malicious activities. Summarised below are those considerations from the inquiry that Pool Re believes are most pertinent and which businesses can apply today:

• Risk Assessment – the inquiry identified a haphazard tick-the-boxes approach to risk assessment, which was not aligned to the threat level. Businesses should ensure their risk assessment identifies vulnerability, proportionate control measures and provides an explanation of how these will be implemented.
• Risk Mitigation – failures in provision of security infrastructure were identified. Businesses must consider if their current security posture provides effective, and proportionate mitigation, in pursuit of deterring, delaying and denying an attacker.
• Training – a lack of terrorism awareness and training meant there were flaws in the detection and response to the attacker. Businesses should consider how well their staff are trained. Could they spot hostile or suspicious behaviours? Would they know what to do in the event of an attack? Free awareness training is available, such as ‘Action Counters Terrorism’ (ACT), if they are not adequately prepared.
• Responsibility and Liability – difficulties in determining ownership and responsibility for multi-tenant space resulted in “Grey Space”, contributing to a series of failings that proved fatal. Businesses should consider how they liaise with partners, neighbours, landlords and tenants to communicate effectively and establish responsibility for protection.

Martyn’s Law:

On the need for the introduction of Martyn’s Law, in Volume 1 of the Manchester Arena inquiry, Sir John Saunders stated:

“Doing nothing is, in my view, not an option”.

In an attempt to avoid such shortcomings again, the inquiry gives clear support for Martyn’s Law acting as a vehicle for improvement and action.

The key requirements of Martyn’s Law are  likely to directly correlate with the recommendations made by Sir John Saunders. Martyn’s Law will ultimately provide for an enforcement and compliance mechanism, introducing a legal duty on you to take reasonable steps to protect the public at your business site, and learn from the Manchester Arena attack.

It is expected that the law will impose such duty on owners and operators of PALs to take appropriate action, operating across a tiered structure of Standard Tier (100 person capacity venues) and Enhanced Tier (+ 800 capacity venues). This will apply across sectors such as leisure, hospitality, event space, shopping centres, education and places of worship.

The draft legislation is due to be published this spring, with the bill set to be introduced into parliamentary business as soon as possible. It is anticipated that there will be an implementation period of approximately 12 months to enable business to make the necessary changes.

Pool Re, together with a leading international law firm, will be providing future insights and guidance on the draft Martyn’s Law legislation once it is published, particularly around its implications, both in terms of preparation and where liabilities might arise.

If you wish to know more about Martyn’s Law, and what you can do now, Pool Re Solutions have created the Martyn’s Law  – Prepare to Protect  briefing pack.

What now?

Figen Murray’s call to action must now be heeded.

Today, through adopting the lessons learnt from the Manchester Arena attack, and requirements expected by Martyn’s Law, we must start our journey in becoming better at preventing, preparing for, and responding to, a terrorist attack – or risk similar failures, and further tragic loss of life.

Equipped with the inquiry findings, free terrorism training programmes, and future tools and resources to support Martyn’s Law implementation, we will never have had better support in helping to ensure we can provide safe and secure spaces for the public.

So, now is the time to consider if you would be adequately prepared if the worst were to occur at your business? Could you be assured you had done enough?

If you will be subject to Martyn’s Law requirements, or are responsible for security protection of members of the public on your site, and haven’t yet taken proportionate steps to ensure their safety and security, now is the time to rectify your approach.