During a week when Martyn’s Law truly took centre stage in the UK private security sector, the association for university security managers, Aucso, could reflect on their foresight in making it the focus of their 2026 conference in advance, reflects Mark Rowe.
Pictured is a scene from the three-day event at the University of Exeter: Hannah Wilson from the University of Manchester doing the honours, taking a picture for Alan Cain, head of security at the University of Salford (right), with industry stalwart Guy Mathias, who was there as an exhibitor for Dardan Security, one of the guarding contractors in the exhibition room (others included Bidvest Noonan and, offering hand-pumped footballs also reflecting their work in the events sector, First Response Group).
It turned out that the publication of the Home Office’s all-important section 27 (under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act) ‘statutory guidance’ on the Wednesday, April 15 came after Tuesday, day one of the two-day Aucso conference, heard from Laura Gibb, executive director for Martyn’s Law at the Security Industry Authority, which released its own guidance (required under section 12 of the Act) about how it’ll regulate Martyn’s Law. Laura Gibb spoke of a ‘risk based approach’. This was material for a panel of a National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) man, and Martyn’s Law campaigners Figen Murray and Nick Aldworth.
On reflection, the dual publication does not invalidate Aucso’s own guidance document, put together in recent weeks by past chair Ollie Curran (University College London) and Aucso stalwart Dale Murphy (Hertfordshire, not in attendance at Exeter). Partly, because it’s well written and you can hardly go wrong with the TO PROTECT model it outlines: governance requirements, Risk Assessment Security and Vulnerability (RASV), Terrorism Vulnerability Risk Assessments (TVRA), protective security measures, training, emergency preparedness, and partnership coordination. That’s not to say (and nor would its authors say) it’s an alternative to the closest study of the Home Office’s guidance, if you are one of the 180,000 or so premises that will want to comply with Martyn’s Law, taking measures to counter the threat of terrorism, and (as importantly, as with health and safety, and fire safety) documenting work as proof.
There may lie a difference between meeting the law, also known as the Protect Duty, to avoid the attentions of SIA inspectors; and actually having a secure site that’s prepared for harm, whether from terrorists, nihilists (people who turn to violence for the sake of it, mentioned on day one) or the mentally unwell.
Budgets
Any gathering can be of use to take the temperature of a field, and in Aucso’s case that can mean (half-accidentally) overhearing snatches of conversation, such as ‘of course, finance …. budgets ….’. In other words, universities like the National Health Service, local government and the blue light services are having to tighten their belts. One exhibitor put it to me that some NHS trusts like universities are indeed without spare money; some do have money to spend, if only in the name of ‘spend to save’. It’s not hard in any circle of acquaintances to hear from those of student age of their academic departments being asked to shed staff; support departments such as security, or rather larger departments that security is part of such as estates, are natural targets for cuts or freezes if a uni wants to defend its educational offering in a competitive, indeed global, market.
Service
Yet a pair of Exeter’s own patrollers, in red and black, on duty at the door of the Great Hall where Aucso 2026 was based, and the pair of Skoda patrol cars parked at the entrance – possible because it’s the Easter vac, and few students were on campus – were evidence of what a security department offers. As Professional Security magazine has featured over the years, such as two years ago at Liverpool (whose Andrew Molloy was at Exeter), campus security patrollers have changed with the times. They are (to quote the University of Exeter website, and from personal observation) friendly, besides 24-7. And, equipped with a considerable amount of expensive kit, suggestive of investment – Reveal body-worn cameras, work mobile phone and personal phone (kept to hand in pockets whether on trousers or body).
Varied work
As Aucso’s annual awards attest, and Exeter’s own awards (see link to the emergency response to an unexploded World War Two bomb in 2021) the work of a campus security patrol force is varied – as routine first response (rather than the 999 services) to students in distress, whether requiring first aid or mental health first aid awareness; besides offering bobby-like reassurance. That’s echoed in the varying backgrounds of Aucso members. Aucso chair Geoff Brown, and Dilip Amin of the University of Reading (who welcomed Laura Gibb to the stage) are each retired policemen who are well into a second career in university security management. Younger are the likes of Luke Fadipe, Head of Community Safety and Security Services at Cardiff University, and Hannah Peden of Heriot-Watt, the Wales and Scotland regional chairs of Aucso respectively.
