BREEAM Security Needs Assessments
Security Needs Assessments your BREEAM Assessor can evidence and your design team can build.
The BREEAM security credit needs a Security Needs Assessment (SNA) by a Suitably Qualified Security Specialist (SQSS), and it needs to arrive early enough to shape the design. A generic SNA might look cheap, but if the Assessor cannot evidence it, or the design team cannot build it, the project loses the credit and incurs further cost besides.
What the credit requires
Written for the Assessor's evidence trail
The BREEAM security credit sits at Hea 08 under New Construction V7.1 (criteria 1 to 3) and Rsl 04 under Refurbishment V7 (criteria 5 to 7). Your BREEAM Assessor checks the evidence that each criterion is met, so we structure every SNA criterion by criterion, with the recommendations and the design responses documented the way the Assessor needs to file them. At completion they can confirm from that record that each one has been implemented, and award the credit, without having to interpret a generic risk report.
Our recommendations are also proportionate to the risk and priced within reach of the project, so they get built rather than value-engineered out later. We consult and coordinate with the design team beyond what a minimum SNA requires, so the recommendations end up in the drawings as well as the report.
What handled looks like
Fixed fee, four to six weeks
A standalone SNA runs on a fixed fee with a first draft typically within four to six weeks; an accelerated three-week programme is available when a submission deadline demands it. Common add-ons within the same appointment:
Planning content
Design and Access Statement security content or a full Crime Impact Statement, aligned with the SNA so planning and BREEAM tell one story.
Design mark-ups
Stage 3 equipment mark-ups that turn SNA recommendations into drawings your design team can coordinate against. Full security design can follow in Stage 4.
Ongoing engagement
Continuing involvement through design and construction, so the SNA's recommendations are designed and delivered as intended. Proctor formalises this continuing role for the exemplary credit.
Credentials
Three of our consultants qualify as SQSS
Mark Tucknutt, Gareth Hulmes and Anthony Goodacre all qualify as SQSS. Gareth authored the original BREEAM security credit, Hea 06, and previously led the SABRE scheme at BRE, so we structure each SNA for assessment with an author's understanding of what the credit is for.
The exemplary credit
Two BREEAM credits from one appointment
Beyond the standard credit, both manuals offer a BREEAM exemplary credit for independent validation of the project's security risk management process against a recognised scheme, which BREEAM awards as an innovation credit. Proctor, created and administered by Toren Consulting Ltd, is recognised by BRE as a route to that exemplary credit under both New Construction V7.1 and Refurbishment V7.
We are currently the only consultancy able to deliver the SNA, the continuing specialist role and the Proctor assessment under a single appointment; the scheme provides for licensing further assessor organisations as it develops. Where the Proctor process begins during Concept Design or earlier, one Proctor Certificate evidences both credits, and your Assessor references the recognised scheme and uploads the certificate; where it begins later, both credits remain available, with the standard credit evidenced from the SNA in the usual way.
FAQs
Questions we're often asked
Who qualifies as a Suitably Qualified Security Specialist?
The BREEAM criteria themselves define the SQSS, through requirements for security qualifications and relevant experience. We set out the qualifying credentials inside the SNA, so your Assessor can file that evidence without chasing it.
How early does the SNA need to happen?
BREEAM requires it during or before Concept Design (RIBA Stage 2), which is also early enough that the design can still respond to it. A later appointment can still earn the BREEAM security credit where the specialist confirms the delay has ruled nothing out. If the project is also pursuing the exemplary route through Proctor, the SNA must be complete by the end of RIBA Stage 3; and if a submission deadline is already close, the accelerated three-week programme is designed for that situation.
Can you take over an SNA started by another consultant?
Yes. We review what exists first, then either update it or restructure it criterion by criterion for the Assessor's evidence trail, whichever costs the project less.
Does the SNA cover Secured by Design?
They overlap but answer different authorities. The SNA is evidence for your BREEAM Assessor; Secured by Design (SBD) is certification awarded by the police. Where a project carries both, we run them under one appointment with one set of assumptions, so the two never contradict each other.
Getting started
Tell us about your project and we will reply quickly with a fixed-fee proposal. We will then prepare an SNA your Assessor can evidence for the BREEAM security credit, with recommendations your design team can build, and remain involved as the design develops.