Nick Aldworth and the Women’s Security Network were the individual and group category winners of the annual David Clark Awards. They’re made in memory of the industry stalwart – head of security at the Crick Institute, St Pancras, a chair of the industry body ASIS UK and the umbrella group the Security Commonwealth – who died of cancer aged 49 in 2019.
The occasion was the final seminar of 2025 for the Association of Security Consultants, at the British Library, a neighbour of the Crick in central London. Jayne King, a past chair of the Security Commonwealth, is pictured making the award to Nick Aldworth. Nick is a former senior counter terror cop now a consultant, who was among campaigners for Martyn’s Law, which was passed by Parliament in April as the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which (when coming into force, on course for 2027) will require premises and events to take steps to counter the threat of terrorism. In a brief speech Nick praised the ‘incredible resilience and persistence’ of Figen Murray, who founded the campaign for Martyn’s Law, named after her son Martyn Hett, who was among those killed in the Manchester Arena terrorist bomb of May 2017.
In the individual category was Nathan Emmerich, the comms specialist who worked on the Martyn’s Law campaign, and who as an advocate member of the ASC had opened proceedings.
Group
In the group category, Jayne King announced three: highly commended was the Safe Haven app; runner-up was the Security Circle podcast by Yolanda Hamblen, and the winner was Liz Lloyd, formerly of Professional Security Magazine, now of the industry association BSIA, for the Women’s Security Network.
Speakers
Emergency planning was the ASC’s theme of the day. First, the audience heard from a pair of London local government emergency planners, Stephen Arundell (Redbridge) and David McClory (Slough) who gave their findings on the number of emergency planning staff in the capital over the last 20 years. They found that numbers rose and fell not according to the risks, but fell in the 2010s due to public sector austerity and saw rises after major events that councils felt, such as 2017 terror attacks in London, and notably the Grenfell fire of 2017 in a council-owned block of flats in Kensington. The speakers noted that while London in fact has a record total of emergency planners, it did not feel like it to them; for one thing, because (due to local government being stretched financially) the planners had had to pick up related functions, such as resilience, health and safety, risk management and even event security management.
Moral philosophy
Next came Alan Cain, head of security and emergency planning at the University of Salford, and previously an emergency planner for the NHS in Manchester. He introduced moral philosophy; the decisions and dilemmas that those on the front line – not their managers, nor consultants – may face in marauding and other terrorist attacks, that may require (as according to Martyn’s Law) a lockdown of a building or campus site (if it has perimeter fencing), or invacuation or evacuation. To give two examples: if a building goes into lockdown, what are those on the door to do if someone outside asks to be let in? And if the terrorists set off a fire alarm, or set an actual fire, as terrorists have been known to do (‘fire as a weapon’) should those who have invacuated themselves obey the fire alarm and risk attack from marauding terrorists, or stay in the building and risk death from fire? As Alan said, such problems, and the potential for saving or sacrificing lives, have confounded moral philosophers. He added that the answer is in the training of staff; and the UK official National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) offers such training, for example for control room operators, putting security staff through scenarios to practice decision-making, under pressure, and to understand ‘there are no right answers’. Alan concluded: “The days of security officers being paid just over minimum wage are dead. They need to be well trained, well exercised and paid the rate to do that.” After a tea break, among the speakers was an official from Nactso.
