The Government is seeking views from the public, via a public consultation, regarding how they might use legislation to enhance the protection of publicly accessible locations. This is called ‘Protect Duty’.
Protect Duty would make it a legal requirement for public places to ensure they are prepared for and can protect the public from incidents such as terrorist attacks.
Currently private and public owners of venues have no obligation to act on free advice from specialist counter-terrorism officers about threats of a terrorist attack and how to mitigate the risk.
Publicly accessible locations include a wide variety of everyday locations such as but not limited to:
- hotels
- pubs
- clubs
- music venues
- bars
- casinos
- high streets
- retail stores
- medical centres and hospitals
- schools and universities
- festivals
- sports stadiums
- shopping centres and markets
- places of worship
- transport hubs
- parks
- public squares and other open spaces
This consultation is open to the public, and is targeted at:
- venues
- organisations
- businesses
- local authorities
- public authorities
- individuals
The consultation is open until 2 July 2021 and further details are available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/protect-duty.
