Staff safety
Protect Duty legislation - where do you stand and what can you do now to prepare?
New Protect Duty legislation will introduce a statutory duty for the owners and operators of publicly accessible locations to take appropriate and proportionate measures to protect the public from terrorist attacks.
When made law, Protect Duty is expected to apply to a wide variety of venues, including retail stores, shopping centres, markets, pubs and bars, hotels, casinos, stadiums and music venues, festivals, hospitals, public squares and other open spaces, and transport hubs.
It became one of the 38 proposed bills in the Queen’s Speech on 10th May 2022 and could be implemented into law as soon as the end of this year.
What will Protect Duty mean for retailers?
Without doubt, central to Protect Duty will be a requirement for all retailers to undertake detailed, subjective risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities and appropriate mitigation measures in the event of an attack. These will need to be reviewed regularly as terrorist methodologies inevitably evolve, and will likely require pre-planning and policy making, staff detection and response training, CCTV monitoring, crisis communication and emergency lockdown procedures .
It's something the retail industry should be planning for
As with any new government regulation, it’s likely Protect Duty will see regulators recruited to enforce the rules by inspecting relevant venues and processes, and where necessary, issuing penalties where legal obligations are not met.
How can retailers prepare?
Aside from policy and procedure planning, many retailers are already exploring some of the worker safety technology options that will provide extra protection to staff and customers. Body worn video technology looks set to be one of the key pieces of anti-terrorist tech in the new Protect Duty retail landscape.
Already adopted by police and law enforcement agencies across the UK, body camera tech pioneered by Peoplesafe uniquely operates with a personal safety app with an SOS alarm button that sends a Bluetooth signal to the camera, triggering it to start recording. This frees the user from having to manually turn the camera on and, in a terrorist situation, ensures that video would begin recording as soon as the user felt threatened, capturing evidence of any incident.
The accompanying app also provides instant, two-way communication with a 24/7 Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) (in under 3 seconds, on average), where a Peoplesafe Alarm Controller can listen to the phone audio and access the situation. They will also have access to the user’s GPS location, enabling them to send in the emergency services directly in the event of a terrorist attack.
Failsafe communication tech is also crucial in any terrorist situation and a more effective and reliable alternative to SMS, WhatsApp, email, and social media is already available to retailers who want to keep employees and employers connected in the event of a crisis.
In a terrorist situation, where customers and retail staff may need to lockdown or be evacuated quickly, the Peoplesafe Alert tool provides a specific service for critical situations that can override silent settings and send repeat notifications until they’re responded to.
Targeted messages can also be sent to specific groups or geofenced locations with a global reach.
For more information about the Protect Duty, click here.
For more information about Peoplesafe worker safety technology visit www.peoplesafe.co.uk
