TVRA & VDA

All HVM and counter terrorism provision should be based on an understanding of the threat and vulnerability of your individual event or location so that a proportionate solution can be specified to mitigate your specific risk.

The way we do that at SAFECROWDS is to carry out a threat, vulnerability and risk assessment (TVRA), which includes:

• A site visit by one of our trained and experienced counter terrorism experts
• Collaboration with your team to understand your venue or location
• Scrutiny of multiple factors, including both physical and behavioural risk

Our risk assessment process also includes a vehicle dynamics assessment (VDA), which considers the layout of any roads close to your venue or location, analysing the speed, velocity and trajectory at which they would travel in order to assess the risk of impact.

Our recommendations are based on a combination of these two assessments, whilst also considering practical and commercial requirements.

Martyn's Law

Martyn’s Law is proposed legislation, now being considered as the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, following a campaign to make it mandatory to protect events and venues from terror attacks. The campaign came about as a result of the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, in which 22 people were killed and hundreds more were injured. It is named after one of the victims, Martyn Hett.

While the draft Bill is not yet legislation, the proposals have acted as a catalyst to encourage stadia, venues, event organisers and those responsible for public spaces to consider their duty of care in mitigating the risk of terror attacks. The draft legislation splits events and venues into two ‘duties’ - standard duty and enhanced duty - based on the capacity of the venue or event.

Standard Duty – 100-799 capacity

• Ensure staff are trained
• Ensure a risk assessment has been done

Enhanced Duty – 800+ capacity

• Appoint a designated senior officer
• Complete and regularly review a risk assessment
• Keep and maintain a security plan
• Implement ‘reasonably practicable’ counter terrorism measures

We can help you prepare for Martyn’s Law, understand your obligations and carry out a robust risk assessment process to ensure you implement proportionate counter terrorism measures without exposing people to undue risk or exposing your business to costly over-specification.