The National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP) conference in Birmingham on Thursday, October 9, has a line-up of speakers to set out the landscape of high street security and loss prevention.
Andy Dunbobbin will give an opening address. As Labour PCC (Police and Crime Commissioner) for North Wales he’s the Joint Lead (with Conservative, Sussex PCC Katy Bourne) for Business and Retail Crime for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC).
He published his 2025-28 plan in January, which on retail and business crime stated that ‘I want to work with local retailers to ensure they know what and how to report to the police. I want to ensure that police attend where staff have been abused or threatened. Prolific offenders must be pursued. It is vital that business and retail owners and the police work together to make bestuse of the technologies available to identify suspects and gather evidence.’
PCPI
Amanda Mulholland will go over the work of the UK police company Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (PCPI) where she works as National Academy Manager. PCPI runs numerous schemes such as Secured by Design, CSAS (community safety accreditation scheme) and the rail equivalent RSAS; and is the accrediting body for the BCRP National Standards Accreditation. The Academy, as one of the initiatives managed by PCPI, which is police owned and not for profit, is an Approved Centre for the exam awarding body ProQual which means that it’s authorised to deliver National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) as recognised by UK employers.
Amanda leads on the Secured by Design (SBD) accreditation of BCRPs and BIDs – in recent months, she’s worked with Sophie from the NABCP to review and refresh the associated accreditation process and documentation. Recently, Amanda has worked with the police’s National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) to develop a Crime Prevention Toolkit for retailers, funded by the Home Office, available as an electronic document and distributed through retailers’ membership bodies.
Sophie Jordan, as CEO of NABCP, is the event organiser and among the speakers. She was featured for her work as partnership coordinator in Gravesend in Kent in the October edition of Professional Security Magazine; last autumn she was also among those giving evidence to the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs committee, on tackling shoplifting.
Night economy
Not to overlook the night-time economy, Iwona Kossek, of Best Bar None, will give the latest on the Home Office-backed safety and well-being accreditation for venues and bars. She’s a board member of NABCP; her work with business crime reduction partnerships (BCRPs) includes managing one of the UK’s few licensed BCRPs, besides supporting Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and local authorities on crime reduction. She’s besides a Director of the national Ask for Angela Community Interest Company (CIC).
Talking of BIDs
As for BIDs, Lisa Carlson and Jonathan Newman will give perspectives. Lisa Carlson is CEO of Canterbury BID, and Chair of the Association of Town and City Management (ATCM) Board; while Jonathan has been employed by Great Yarmouth Town Centre Partnership as its Town Centre Manager since 2002. Originally funded by voluntary membership subscriptions, Jonathan led the development of a town centre Business Improvement District in 2006 and has since overseen three BID renewal ballots. He manages the Great Yarmouth Business Crime Reduction Partnership which was BCRP accredited earlier this year, and the town’s public space surveillance CCTV. As a member of The BID Foundation Council, Jonathan was asked to form the Safe and Secure Working Group in 2023 and has continued to chair this group since it went to the ATCM earlier this year. Also speaking is Richard Lane, Head of Operations and Business Crime at It’s in Nottingham BID, there since October 2022. His work in Nottingham city centre includes the VIVA scheme, in information sharing and intelligence; body-worn camera and radio devices, and the Alert! app for reporting incidents.
NBCC
Also invited to speak is the new head of the National Business Crime Centre, Supt Lisa Maslen, who joined the City of London Police in May 2025. Previously she was the Met Police Business Crime lead. She sits on the BCRP National Standards Accreditation Board. And Adam Ratcliffe of London-based Safer Business Network; Mark, Business Manager for the Licensing Security and Vulnerability Initiatives (another scheme run by PCPI); Scott Ballard of fogging product firm Smoke Screen and Martin Gregg of Shopsafe.
As at the 2023 event, Paul Kinvig is in the chair; he’s the Chief Operating Officer for the Bournemouth Town Centre BID, and an experienced conference host besides. It opens at thestudio in Cannon Street in Birmingham city centre at 9.30am and is for members only.
