For the security and safety committee, it has been a really busy year as we started the year dealing with the impacts of Covid, the rules and regulations through which we had to navigate whilst ensuring that we continued to provide safe and secure destinations and providing the public with reassurance that it was safe to re-emerge from lockdown.
We have also been looking at the mental health issues that we have seen and how these have translated into an increase across the industry of vulnerable people coming to shopping destinations with the intent to take their own lives, we are capturing this information so that we can actually relate what the number of occurrences across the industry looks like so that we have some quantifiable statistics. We are also looking at where the previous guidance note on this subject needs to be refreshed and what other tactical options we can supply to our colleagues to tackle this issue, we anticipate being ready in the New Year.
The committee also recognised at an early stage, following the re-openings, that we were all experiencing significant staff issues, particularly within the security arena. A paper on the long term implications of this staffing challenge is being prepared, as from an asset perspective, there needs to be recognition of the impacts that these challenges and the dwindling pool of recruitment will have for the longer term and how competitive pay rates within the other sectors of industry will impact retail.
Of course, the year has not been without an element of terrorism and the increase in the threat level drew us all back together to ensure that our Counter Terrorism measures reflected the increased threat and that the incident in Liverpool may have galvanised others with radical plans to attack our society – this is still perceived as a very real threat that we all need to remain alert to.
The committee has continued to support and provide consultation, voicing the industries views, with the impending Protect Duty which is due to form part of new primary legislation next year and which will coalesce security in a similar way to Health & Safety legislation, imposing an explicit responsibility on those owners operators of Publicly Accessible Locations (PAL’S)  to ensure that they have conducted a risk assessment and mitigated to as low as reasonably practicable the principle terrorist attack methodologies.
The committee has a wide representation from landlords, property management companies through to direct contacts with NaCTSO and the National Business Crimes Centre who are regular and frequent contributors to our meetings.
The committee has continued to hold ‘virtual’ meetings throughout the year,  on a bi-monthly basis, as within our remit it has been such a busy period. We end the year almost as we started 2021 with Covid yet again presenting us with additional contests. But come what may, the resilience and professionalism of the team that make up the Safety and Security Committee will shine through demonstrating their experience and wealth of expertise, we learn from each other and support each other and the industry as a whole, for which I would like to express my personal thanks to the time and effort that they dedicate to their Revo work.
If you would like to learn more – or contribute please do not hesitate to contact me
Wishing you all a very Happy and Festive Period – ho, ho, ho, and here is to 2022 and all the that it can throw at us.
Graham WilliamsÂ
Portfolio Security Manager
Hammerson plc