SECURITY DESIGN BLOG

Tools, templates, news for property security

Commercial Property, Residential Property Mark Tucknutt Commercial Property, Residential Property Mark Tucknutt

Security in BREEAM In-Use

BREEAM In-Use Version 6 now includes an Exemplary Credit in Rsl 10 Security on top of the 2 credits available for a Security Risk Assessment.

As a SABRE Registered Company we can provide everything needed to achieve the credits.

Security now has an Exemplary Credit in BREEAM In-Use

BRE has recently released the latest BREEAM In-Use technical manuals for Commercial and Residential buildings. The security section in both has had a major overhaul and is worth serious consideration if you’re planning a BREEAM In-Use Assessment.

Security contributes to a number of BREEAM In-Use credits, and has its own in Rsl 10 Security. The question that Rsl 10 asks is “Has a security risk assessment been carried out"?”. The available credits are:

2 credits if a security risk assessment has been carried out; and

An Exemplary Credit if a risk-based security rating scheme has been used.

As you’d expect, there are some assessment criteria to meet. The security risk assessment must have been completed by a competent person, for example. It must describe security controls and these controls must have been (or be scheduled to be) implemented.

The wording for achieving the Exemplary Credit should be familiar to BREEAM Assessors also working with BREEAM New Construction as it is very similar to the Innovation Credit wording in Hea 06. And just like in BREEAM NC Hea 06, it means ‘achieve a SABRE rating’. SABRE is BRE’s own security certification scheme.

How can we help?

If you’re targeting the BREEAM In-Use Rsl 10 Security Exemplary Credit, then you need a SABRE Assessor. SABRE works a lot like BREEAM. So you talk to a SABRE Registered Assessor like Toren Consulting, and you arrange a Pre-Assessment. Just like BREEAM, you should come away from that with a target rating and a plan to achieve the required score. Depending on your client’s preparedness and target rating, they may have more or less to produce themselves or to engage a SABRE Registered Professional like me to produce for them.

If you’re targeting just the 2 credits, we can support your assessment although you might not need us at all. The assessment subject may (dare I say should?) already have a security risk assessment for the facility. If they don’t, they may have access to someone that can be deemed competent and can produce a security risk assessment (just make sure that it ticks the BREEAM boxes). If they need any help with that, we can support them.

BREEAM In-Use Rsl 10 - Security Risk Assessment

Credits: 2 + 1 Exemplary

Aim

To ensure all property-related security issues are identified and addressed in order to reduce risks from crime.

Value

Reduces the risk of crime and potentially insurance costs

Increases the value of the building to future occupants

Seeks to protect the physical asset and the building occupants

Context

BREEAM In-Use also has the following to say about the wider context of security in the built environment and its applicability to sustainability and well-being:

“Feelings of safety and security are essential to healthy and productive asset occupants. Freedom from crime and the fear of crime has a major impact on quality of life, and therefore effects the wellbeing of building occupants. Security risks are dependent on the context of a building and, as a result, need to be specifically determined based against a number of variables, including function and location. In addition to this, security risks are not static and can change over time. Consequently, security advice from the appropriate professionals is essential in determining the necessary security measures for any asset. Assets should consider how their approach to crime prevention and security may result in inequitable and exclusionary outcomes and solutions. Assets are encouraged to adopt policies and procedures that not only protect building users but contribute to the dignity, safety and security of all people and the wider neighbourhood”

Read More
Residential Property Mark Tucknutt Residential Property Mark Tucknutt

Security Needs Assessments in Home Quality Mark

Up to 9 Home Quality Mark (HQM) Credits are available for a Security Needs Assessment.

We meet all of the requirements to act as the ‘Suitably Qualified Security Specialist’ that you need to achieve those credits.

We get a lot of enquiries about providing Security Needs Assessments. Most of those are for BREEAM Hea 06. Did you know that you can also achieve up to 9 credits towards your Home Quality Mark (HQM) score through Security?

The requirements for achieving the HQM credits are very similar to the BREEAM criteria: consultation with Suitably Qualified Security Specialist (SQSS) during or prior to the concept stage, leading to a set of security recommendations. If 50% of the security recommendations are implemented, 4 credits are awarded. If 100% of the security recommendations are implemented, 9 credits are awarded.

We work hard to make sure that our security recommendations are aligned to our clients’ intended design, operation and budget. And of course in a BREEAM Assessment all of the security recommendations have to be implemented in order to achieve the Hea 06 Security credit. So it seems a bit odd that HQM allows for partial implementation. We suggest that you work with a competent security consultant and target all 9 available HQM security credits.

HQM also requires that security information is included in the Home Information. We support this, as it allows residents to include securiy in their considerations. And from the developer’s perspective, if you’re going to employ a Suitably Qualified Security Specialist in the design of your residential development then why not impress that information on potential purchasers?

Security is often required to be considered for residential developments during planning, either in general terms or in relation to a planning requirement for Secured by Design accreditation. SBD is also often a requirement of Affordable Housing operators. We can help to guide you through the SBD requirements and process, as our consultant Nasr Haque is a Secured by Design Licensed Consultant and a former crime prevention adviser for Greater Manchester Police.

To get the best value for money for your residential development, if you’re seeking a Home Quality Mark rating then employing a Suitably Qualified Security Specialist will give you up to 9 HQM credits as well as helping to provide a high quality development and achieving other planning requirements.

Read More

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/

Read More