All religious/faith premises (churches, synagogues, mosques, gurdwaras, temples, chapels and meeting houses etc) are valuable community facilities which usually historical are well built and have been refuges for people in distress and places for worship in the ‘House of God’, writes Stewart Brown, senior security consultant at Surelock International.
As well as being places of worship, they could have valuable religious artefacts and items, which are often secured effectively, when not in use. Most places have limited entrances/exits with fairly strong and secure doors but are only locked securely when the premises are not in use. Closed circuit television (CCTV) systems on the external areas are often in use at a few venues, premises can be alarmed, some premises may have some security personnel, but not as a matter of course, as religious premises have not been seen as prime targets for attack or serious terrorist and criminal behaviour, until now.
Some religious premises have over recent years installed perimeter fencing to restrict the movement of vehicles towards the buildings, but older churches had/have stonewalls and graveyards that define the confines of the areas looked after by the church etc. These places are also used for family weddings, christening, baptism, celebrations, ceremonial, and remembrance events etc for the various religious communities.
Of course, religious differences have been the start of many disputes, wars and conflicts, current and in the past, and our world appears to be far more unsettled and dangerous now. Terrorist attacks and actions are usually against people or communities and occur where people are gathering in fairly large numbers.
Martyn’s Law
The new Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 – Martyn’s Law has already defined places of worship, irrelevant of numbers attending, in the Standard Tier to comply with the Security Industry Authority (SIA) regulations to come into being in April 2027. The Schedule 1, Section 1 paragraph 9 of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, under ‘Specified Uses of Premises’ states the following:
9(1) Use for –
- Communal worship, or
- Other communal religious practice,
in accordance with the tenets of a particular religion or religious denomination.
(2) Where the relevant Schedule 1 use of qualifying premises is the use mentioned in sub-paragraph (1), the premises are standard duty premises for the purposes of this Part (regardless of how they would otherwise be treated).
Therefore, the premises will need to have effective protection procedures in place involving the following: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communications (of personnel) to comply with the law.
Brief review
The October 2 Manchester synagogue attack initially was able to have reduced loss of life and injury to others due to the facts that the local Jewish community had volunteers, who assist in the allowing of worshipers into the building. They reacted effectively; also fencing protected the synagogue from vehicle movement threats. The quick-thinking volunteers appear to have used a form of lockdown procedures and invacuation procedures that stopped the attacker from fully gaining entry and possibly injuring or killing others.
Due to the numbers of volunteers on site, communication seemed to be effective in immediately reacting to the threat imposed by the attacker and contacting the emergency services, enabling police and ambulance to attend the scene quickly and effectively.
This shows that some security aspects (already identified in Martyn’s Law) could and were effective in looking after/protecting people from danger. Of course, all premises and venues are different, and the processes required to keep people safe will be individual to those premises. At some religious premises, due to the internal layout and construction, there may not be able to monitor people coming in (to identify a likely threat or attacker) and communication with door persons or people in charge of the venue may be difficult to achieve.
An up to date security survey/audit and investigation report should be considered, to review security, identify effective security and possibly any weaknesses, also to ascertain the procedures required at the religious premises, to identify and advise on all security/safety aspects, along with the ‘responsible person’ requirements and documentation in compliance with Martyn’s Law.
See also the official ProtectUK website.
Photo by Mark Rowe: Belfair Methodist Church hall, Southend, the scene of the murder of Conservative MP Sir David Amess in 2021.
