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Security Design Standards Mark Tucknutt Security Design Standards Mark Tucknutt

3 Sources of Official UK Counter Terrorism Guidance

Following the terrorist attack on the Manchester Arena, a list of resources for property developers, owners, operators, tenants and architects concerned with counter terrorism in the design of public spaces.

Introduction

I’m taking a break from the last couple of posts on security design standards for buildings. After the terrorist attack on Manchester Arena on 22nd May, it seemed more helpful to hand out some resources for property developers, owners, occupiers and architects to give an easy reference to official some guidance on what can be done.

If you want to get straight to the relevant government counter terrorism guidance for crowded places, go here: http://toren.co.uk/protef20d.

I’m not going to offer much in the way of opinion in this post; I'll just try to provide some useful resources to those who might need them, and a bit of context on the publishers.

If you want to ensure that your building or development project is designed to mitigate similar risks, or you’re looking to make sure that your security team is set up to deter, detect and manage incidents, I suggest that you take a look through the sources of information and advice below. If you’re a building tenant or operator, you might consider having someone sign up for news and post-incident guidance from the most relevant sources.

If you need to discuss with someone in more detail I’ve included a list of police Counter Terrorism Security Advisors, or you can contact a specialist security consultant. In my experience its not a bad idea to do both.

What are the sources of counter terrorism guidance?

NaCTSO

NaCTSO is the National Counter Terrorism Security Office. They’re a police team that works closely with other government departments, towards the objectives of the PROTECT and PREPARE strands of the UK Government CT strategy. Read more about them at http://toren.co.uk/aboutce46. (Unusually for a public facing police team, NaCTSO doesn’t appear to have a Twitter account)

NaCTSO has published a range of sector-specific guidance for some years, and was quick to respond with specific guidance after the Manchester attack (including a good round-up of their relevant resources) at http://toren.co.uk/manchdbfb.

CPNI

The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure is a public facing team in the Security Service (MI5). Their website is at http://toren.co.uk/centr48ef.

Like NaCTSO, CPNI also put out a specific guidance note after Manchester which references some of their existing guidance (and links to NaCTSO). The note starts with guidance on identifying hostile reconnaissance in the planning phase of a terrorist attack, and runs through event operations and ways to minimise casualties in the event of an incident.

CPNI Guidance Note: Attack on Manchester Arena can be found at http://toren.co.uk/420f.

Local Police Counter Terrorism Security Advisors

You can find the contact email for your local police CTSA at http://toren.co.uk/worki3998.

Special Interest Groups

There are several geographic and thematic groups who both host relevant information resources and put out news and advice following an incident.

Much of the post-incident news and guidance published by these groups is initially coordinated by Cross-sector Safety and Security Communications (CSSC). “Operating under charitable status, CSSC aims to help businesses remain safe and secure by providing information that will assist them to develop robust resilience and emergency preparedness plans. This is achieved by delivering accurate, timely and authoritative messaging and information on an ongoing basis and in times of major incidents with far-reaching impact.” You can find more about the group at http://toren.co.uk/csscwe50e.

London First, Security and Resilience Network - http://toren.co.uk/secur476d

TinyG - http://toren.co.uk/about1a71

ASIS UK - http://toren.co.uk/asisua92a

The Security Institute - http://toren.co.uk/secins

Conclusion

There are other information sources out there. Consultants will offer expert opinions, and manufacturers will provide details of relevant products. The quality of advice from both varies tremendously, especially in the immediate aftermath of a significant terrorist incident. If you're concerned and need immediate support, my advice is to go straight to the source and let the consultants and manufacturers help with the implementation if required.

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Should your BREEAM Assessment include a Security Needs Assessment?

What is a BREEAM Security Needs Assessment? Who can complete one for your project, and what should you look out for to ensure that the points can be achieved?

Introduction

My last blog post (http://toren.co.uk/shoul48c3) introduced a series of posts discussing the various security assessment and certification schemes available for buildings in the UK and gave some pointers on Secured By Design. Part of that article described SBD as a prescriptive standard, as compared to risk-based schemes like BREEAM Security Needs Assessments. So this week, I'm going to take a look at the BREEAM Hea 06 SNA and consider its pros and cons.
What is a BREEAM Hea 06 Security Needs Assessment?

BREEAM

BREEAM is “the world's leading sustainability assessment method for master planning projects, infrastructure and buildings” according to its authors BRE. The BREEAM schemes assess the design, procurement, construction and operation of a development against targets, and rate them as Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent and Outstanding.
The BREEAM standards are available from BRE at http://toren.co.uk/breea3284. Note that this article refers to the UK versions of the standards, rather than the International versions. The full wording of BREEAM Hea 06 in the current (2014) UK new construction scheme can be found at http://toren.co.uk/hea06fa48.

BREEAM Hea 06 Security Needs Assessment

BREEAM grants a point towards a development’s rating if a Security Needs Assessment is completed and the recommendations from that report are implemented.
Specific criteria apply to both the Security Needs Assessment report and the ‘Suitably Qualified Security Specialist’ who can be employed to complete it.

Security Needs Assessment Criteria

Hea 06 defines a Security Needs Assessment as “the project and site specific assessment of security needs”, and requires:

  • A visual audit of the site and surroundings
  • Formal consultation with relevant stakeholders
  • Identification of risks specific to the use and user groups of the building
  • Identification of any detrimental effects the development may have on the existing community

These requirements reflect some of the elements of a typical security consultant’s report for a property. As late involvement in projects is a constant lament of security consultants and other specialists, the requirement of Hea 06 that this assessment is undertaken during RIBA Stage 2 is welcome. Note that there is a clarification that the points can be achieved later if the SQSS confirms that the implementation of security measures has not been ‘restricted, impaired or are not possible as a result of their later involvement’.

The requirement to consult with stakeholders such as the police Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO) or Counter Terrorism Security Advisor (CTSA) ensures that up to date information on specific local and emerging crime types and criminal methods can be included. As the DOCO is a planning consultee, early engagement with them via a security consultant is normally recommended anyway.

Who can help?

BREEAM allows three routes to be considered suitably qualified for the purposes of Hea 06:

  • Crime Prevention Design Advisors (CPDA) or Architectural Liaison Officers (ALO), Counter Terrorism Security Advisor (CTSA); or
  • A specialist registered with a BREEAM-recognised third party accreditation scheme for security specialists.
  • A practising security consultant that meets the following requirements:
    • Minimum of three years relevant experience within the last five years. This experience must clearly demonstrate a practical understanding of factors affecting security in relation to construction and the built environment, relevant to the type and scale of the project being undertaken.
    • Hold a suitable qualification relevant to security.
    • Maintains (full) membership to a relevant professional body or accreditation scheme that meets the following:
      • Has a professional code of conduct, to which members must adhere; and
      • Ongoing membership is subject to peer review.

Increasingly, police DOCOs (replacing the outdated terms referenced in Hea 06) are found to be too stretched to act as SQSS and produce a Security Needs Assessment. While I am unable to point to published policy, this has been a trend that has been confirmed by DOCOs and by developers, architects and BREEAM Assessors when seeking Hea 06 points. The DOCO will usually still meet the design team to advise on crime patterns etc but, probably fairly, will often not produce a fully compliant Security Needs Assessment.

There are not currently any BREEAM-recognised accreditation schemes, meaning that the most likely route to achieving a compliant SNA is to appoint a consultant meeting the experience, qualification and membership criteria.

Should you go for a Security Needs Assessment?

To be absolutely clear, there isn’t a separate badge for completing a BREEAM Security Needs Assessment like there is with SBD; there are only points towards your BREEAM rating. So the short answer is that if you need a BREEAM point, then you should consider a Security Needs Assessment.

The benefits of the approach taken by BREEAM to Security Needs Assessments are largely the flexibility that it allows. You can try to use the police DOCO as SQSS, or engage a professional security consultant. You can follow Secured By Design (as described in a clarification in Hea 06), or you can take a more bespoke approach. You can produce the Security Needs Assessment report in whatever format is best for the project and for the BREEAM Assessor’s later ease in verifying that measures have been included.

The ease with which a Security Needs Assessment actually contributes BREEAM points though ultimately depends upon the alignment of the SQSS’s recommendations with the project’s architecture and budget. Anecdotal evidence and a recent small survey by Toren Consulting indicate that incompatibility of the security recommendations with a project’s design and cost plan are the main reasons that assumed Hea 06 points in a BREEAM Assessment are ultimately not achieved.
(If you’d like to contribute to the survey, it remains open at http://toren.co.uk/breea29a8)

Summary

I believe that it is encouraging to see security represented in sustainability standards. The relationship between the two is something that I will explore in future posts.

Simplistically, engaging an SQSS to complete an SNA could be seen as an easy and affordable way to achieve a BREEAM point, but it should be remembered that to actually get the points the recommendations have to be implemented. There’s no reason this shouldn’t be achievable, but the architect and QS should ensure that the SQSS gives them a clear understanding of the implications of the SNA.

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Should you go for a Secured By Design award for your building?

The first in a series of articles looking at the range of security design and assessment schemes and standards for buildings in the UK. Secured By Design (SBD) is “The official UK Police flagship initiative combining the principles of 'designing out crime' with physical security”. Should your construction project go for the badge?

Introduction

There’s a fairly broad range of security awards available for buildings, whether at construction, fit-out or in use. But do you need to go for them? Should you be targeting Secured by Design for your new residential development? What about the City of London Crime Prevention Association’s Building Security Accreditation (catchy!) for your commercial office? BRE started with BREEAM Security Needs Assessments and are now offering SABRE - it's BRE so surely it's worth going for?

In a series of posts I’m going to take a look at the nature of these schemes, and try to give you a steer on their applicability and usefulness. We’ll also be giving away a comparison template for ease of reference to security schemes versus building types.

If you’re involved in the design, construction or fit-out of commercial or residential property, then you’ve probably bumped into some of these security design certificates. Maybe you’re a property developer, architect or planning consultant who found that you had a planning requirement to achieve Secured By Design certification. Perhaps you’re a BREEAM Assessor looking to include points available for security under Hea 06. Maybe you’re even a building operator or tenant looking for assurance that the building that you’re housing your people in has a suitable degree of security or perhaps you're trying to satisfy insurers. Let's start with probably the best known of them all.

Secured By Design

What is it?

SBD (not SbD, on pain of marketing death) is “The official UK Police flagship initiative combining the principles of 'designing out crime' with physical security”.

That means that the SBD schemes combine elements of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED, worthy of a series of posts or maybe a PhD) and physical products tested to security standards (again, the strengths and weaknesses of these standards and their applicability will be the subject of future posts).

What types of building or uses does it apply to?

SBD is, in my experience, most commonly and most usefully applied to residential developments. The academic assessments of SBD and CPTED have also tended to focus on residential developments There was a peak in this while Code for Sustainable Homes was still going, as CfSH gave some points for achieving SBD New Homes 2014 ‘Section 2 Part Compliance’. There is also sometimes a specific planning requirement, though in my experience this has often been a rumour on projects that was not strictly true.

SBD has also launched National Building Approval. NBA accredits building types so that developers can deploy the same building nationally without reapplying each time. In order to facilitate that approach, SBD NBA necessarily only covers physical security measures and not the CPTED elements which are inherently more location specific.

As well as SBD Homes 2016, there are also SBD Design Guides for Commercial Buildings (2015), New Schools (2014) and Hospitals (2005).

What sort of standard is SBD?

Secured by Design is (mostly) a prescriptive standard. While it gently encourages you to use products from Secured By Design Members (www.securedbydesign.com/members/), SBD for the most part refers to products tested to British and occasionally European standards (see EN 1627 discussion below).

Where SBD deviates slightly from being a fully prescriptive standard is that it gives final sign off, and discretion over any non-compliances, to the individual assigned police Designing Out Crime Officer. This means, naturally, that some deviation from one DOCO to the next. Some will accept design alternatives or reduced product specs to allow compatibility with your architecture or operation, and some won't.

Probably the most common example of this at the time of writing is the use of EN 1627 RC3 doors; there is a much broader and more appealing range of products tested to this than to the PAS 24 standard that SBD requires. Some DOCOs will allow them and some won't, in my experience. I'll pick this up again in a future technical post on SBD, in the meantime there's a note from SBD at www.securedbydesign.com/wp-content/.../SBD_THSG_1627_March_2013-2.pdf.

Should you apply for Secured By Design certification?

If you're a residential build-to-sell property developer, I think that you should consider it. With the introduction of Building Regulations Approved Document Q mandating some of the more significant physical security elements of SBD, there seems little reason not to at least evaluate the compatibility of your scheme.

If your property is PRS, student accommodation or other rented multi-dwelling residential property then perhaps you should also consider the in-use operational benefits of an enhanced level of security beyond ADQ, which SBD provides.

Outside of residential property, the SBD offering is less clear. SBD Commercial Buildings takes a similar approach to SBD Homes, tackling both physical security products and more design related crime prevention theories. However it seems to me that in trying to cover the breadth of commercial building types the standard may have become complex and diluted. In my experience SBD Commercial has lost ground to more flexible security schemes that allow a security consultant to blend project-specific risks with building-appropriate measures.

BREEAM Hea 06 references Secured By Design, but also requires the site-specific parts of a BREEAM Security Needs Assessment on top. At the time of writing it seems that police Designing Out Crime Officers are not always willing to act as SQSS for BREEAM purposes, and will only participate in a project if it is going for Secured By Design certification. If that continues to be the case then it may be that some projects should apply for SBD as a means of gaining access to specific local crime information that can't be gleaned from the publicly available statistics.

Who can help?

Individual SBD applications have to be made via a local police Designing Out Crime Officer (also known as a Crime Prevention Design Advisor or an Architectural Liason Officer). You can find the application forms at http://www.securedbydesign.com/industry-advice-and-guides/ and a list of DOCOs at http://www.securedbydesign.com/contact-secured-by-design/.

If you're considering Secured By Design National Building Approval, then you should contact SBD at sbdnba@police-cpi.co.uk.

We recommend that before you engage with the DOCO you should understand at a high level the security threats to your development; the type of security that your building's users will expect and value; the compatibility of those things with SBD; and the compatibility of SBD with your proposed layout and materials, particularly your facade system and door specifications.

Summary

If your scheme is residential, then you should consider applying for Secured By Design Homes 2016 because the crime reduction benefits are proven and the additional expenditure beyond complying with Approved Document Q may be low. 

I'll revisit Secured By Design Homes 2016 in greater detail in a future post, and provide some commentary on the specific measures that it requires.

If your scheme is commercial, then you may be better served at this time by a building-specific security assessment. We will cover more schemes aimed at commercial buildings in coming posts.

To get some independent security design advice at any stage in your design or construction process, contact us at https://torenconsulting.co.uk/contact-us/.

All of the Secured By Design Guides are available from http://www.securedbydesign.com/industry-advice-and-guides/

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