Four steps to help SMEs protect themselves against terrorism risk

Jun 14, 2024

A proactive approach to terrorism risk management, underpinned by appropriate insurance is the best way to protect your people and property. This article highlights four simple steps SMEs can take to review their security procedures:

• Identify the Risk
• Assess the risk
• Manage the risk
• Record and Monitor the risk

1. Identify the Risk

It is critical to identify the risk based on the current threat. Pool Re has highlighted below what you need to consider.

Who?
The three main terrorist groups likely to target the UK are:
• Islamist Extremists
• Far Right extremists
• Northern Ireland related terrorists

Where?
Crowded places such as shopping malls and high streets, as well as iconic sites, including religious or government buildings, are often the focus of attacks. This means all businesses, large and small, need to think about how best to protect their livelihoods against the threat of terrorism.
Pool Re Solutions has produced a suite of comprehensive sector-specific threat assessments. These assessments provide an unparalleled resource for understanding the terrorism threat landscape in the UK, covering over 60 types of businesses across 7 key sectors. To find out more about the terrorism threat related to your sector, visit this webpage.

How?
The current threat level from terrorism in the UK is Substantial with a growing trend towards low complexity attacks, such as the use of knives or vehicles. Methods of attack may differ slightly, but all terrorists will seek to target people, businesses and the economy, and exploit vulnerabilities at a premise.

‘ProtectUK’ is the government information platform to support counter terrorism in the UK. It provides support and guidance to protect and prepare businesses and individuals against terrorism risk. Visit their website for Risk Identification.

2. Assess the risk

Terrorism risk management might sound daunting and demanding, and businesses need to assess likelihood and impact. The ProtectUK risk assessment template provides a simple to use framework for assessing the from terrorist attack.

3. Manage the risk

Having a plan and training your staff can drastically improve reaction times at your business in the event of an emergency. Being prepared is a key, and simple step, to minimising the impact of a terrorist attack.

Could your staff answer the following 5 questions?

1. Who is appointed to make decisions, and do they know what they are doing?
2. How do you enter and exit the building in an emergency?
3. How do you lock down quickly?
4. Where can you hide?
5. How do you communicate and how do you stay updated if you find yourself in a run/hide/tell scenario?

A 5 Point Terrorism Risk Checklist, a straightforward, terrorism risk management checklist tool is also provided to identify further protection measures relevant to SMEs.

Check your policy. Does your insurance cover terrorism including non-damage business interruption (NDBI)? Consider insurance to protect against property damage, business interruption and the costs that result from a terrorist attack where there is no physical damage. To find the right insurance for your business, you can visit www.biba.org.uk/find-insurance.
SMEs must either accept, transfer, mitigate or retain the risk. Actions should be identified to treat risks, and action owners assigned with deadlines for completing risk management actions. The Protect UK risk management framework provides a framework for managing risk and Controls List for mitigation options.

4. Monitor and Review

To ensure they remain appropriate to the current and emerging threat, we advise businesses to review and revise risk management plans and procedures regularly, and appoint accountable individuals to manage and own risks. SMEs can access terrorism threat analysis and reports via our Knowledge Centre.Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.