What is the counter-terrorism duty for premises?
Legislation places requirements on those responsible for certain publicly accessible premises and events to prepare for and reduce the risk from terrorism, with obligations scaled to capacity.
It introduces a tiered regime, with lighter requirements for smaller venues focused on procedures and awareness, and more substantial ones for larger premises.
For a security contractor it changes what clients need from them: staff awareness, documented procedures and evidence of training become contractual expectations rather than differentiators.
Implementation has an lead-in period and a regulator, so what applies and from when is a question to check rather than assume.
In practice
A mid-sized venue working out what the duty means for it.
The management assume it is a matter for stadiums and arenas, and that their capacity puts them outside it. The actual position depends on the premises, its use and the current thresholds, and it is not a question a venue should answer from memory or from a trade press summary.
Where it does apply, the work is procedural rather than physical: knowing what staff would do, having told them, and being able to show it.
The risk for a security contractor is being asked by a client whether they are covered, and answering.
What goes wrong in practice
- Assumed to apply only to very large venues.
- Training delivered without records that would evidence it to a regulator.
- Procedures written centrally and never made specific to a site.