Unintended Consequences of the Protect Duty
A government consultation reveals some significant concerns for churches and places of worship. As chair of the Faith Sector Panel of the London Resilience Forum I have a lot to do with London’s Faith Communities’ response to terrorism (see here for my role). So it was with interest that I heard that there was to be a consultation on a new “ Protect Duty ” to “make the public safer at publicly accessible locations.” The proposals follow campaigning by Figen Murray, whose son Martyn was tragically killed in the Manchester Arena attack , to introduce “Martyn’s Law” which aims to legislate for a duty on those who own or manage publicly accessible places to take actions to reduce the threat of terrorism. The ‘simple common sense security’ for which Figen Murray calls must be right; but the legislation now being consulted on causes considerable concern. The proposed legislation has very significant unintended consequences for places of worship. In my view it needs to be signific