Perimeter Security Award

Winner: Manchester City Council

The Perimeter Security Award recognises an organisation, public or private, which has designed and/or installed physical security measures to protect buildings and individuals from terrorist attack.

The 2020 winner of the Perimeter Security Award is Manchester City Council, who earlier this year announced that it will act on proposals that will enshrine the principles of Martyn’s Law into future regulations to ensure the safety of all Manchester residents. A terrorist bomb attack at the Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017 claimed the lives of 22 people, and seriously injured dozens more. Martyn Hett was one of those who died. Since his death, Martyn’s mother Figen Murray has campaigned to have the government introduce legislation to improve security at all public venues, calling it ‘Martyn’s Law’. This is something that the Home Office has said it will do, although the current coronavirus pandemic has halted plans until later in the year.

Manchester City Council has confirmed that it will review the way in which it licences venues in order to ensure high safety standards are in place across the whole of the city. Initially this will have to be voluntary changes made by the owners of licensed premises. However, given the significance of the terror attack on Manchester, and the depth of feeling in the wake of the attack, the authority says that it hopes that the practices which underlie Martyn’s Law would be taken up with enthusiasm.

The shortlisted organisations in this award were KrowdThink, for The Krowd App, and Thames Water.