A bloke on shift this week asked me: “If I saw something dodgy at work, who would I even tell?” Fair question. Most officers don’t actually know. The answer changes on 2 June. There’s also a small matter of the national threat level. And one VIP visit I almost handled well. Let’s get into it.
🗞️ THIS WEEK IN UK SECURITY
The Threat Level Just Got Confirmation From the Despatch Box
On 14 May, Security Minister Dan Jarvis made an oral statement in the Commons. The headline most press picked up: £25 million in extra protective security funding for Jewish community sites, bringing the annual total to £58 million.
The bit your shift needs to know: the UK threat level has been at SEVERE since 1 May. The Minister confirmed it, confirmed 19 late-stage attack plots have been disrupted since 2020, and confirmed the threat level system itself is being reviewed.
What that means on shift, plainly: every brief you give for the next six months should reference the current threat level. Every patrol log should record it. Every CCTV tasking decision can be challenged against it. If your site sits anywhere near a symbolic or higher-risk profile, your liaison with local CT officers needs refreshing, not assuming.
Key takeaway: SEVERE is not background music. Treat it as a tasking input.
📋 COMPLIANCE CORNER
PIDA Goes Live in Two Weeks — Here’s What Changes
From 2 June 2026, the SIA becomes a “prescribed person” under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. In plain English: anyone holding an SIA licence can report wrongdoing directly to the SIA, and the law protects them from being sacked for doing so.
Before 2 June: protection only applied if you raised concerns internally or to a narrow list of bodies. The SIA was not on the list. After 2 June: it is.
Three things to know. It applies to disclosures made in good faith and in the public interest. It covers criminal acts, legal breaches, health and safety risks, and cover-ups of any of the above. You do not have to be right — you have to reasonably believe the concern is real.
What changes for you: if a colleague brings you a concern after 2 June, how you handle and record it matters more. A clean record with the date, the person, the concern and the action taken protects them, protects you, and protects the audit trail if the SIA later needs to see it.
Fix: From 2 June, log every disclosure brought to you to tribunal standard — date, person, concern, action taken. The SIA is now in the audit trail.
🔧 OPERATIONAL TIP
The Visit That Almost Came Off the Rails
Hosted a CP officer this week for a VIP visit. Showed them the garage entrance, the route to the floor, issued the pass, waited at the lift lobby with the office manager. Textbook.
Mid-meeting, contractors started drilling on a different floor. Noise complaint in. I called the senior project manager, drilling stopped, briefed the building manager, logged the complaint in the issue log, all parties happy.
The lesson is not the recovery. The lesson is I should have warned the project manager about the time window the day before. The thing that breaks a high-profile visit is rarely the threat. It’s the building.
Bottom line: Before any VIP visit, brief the building manager, the project manager and the on-site contractors on the exact start and end window. Cheaper than recovering from a noise complaint mid-meeting.
🔗 WORTH KNOWING
This is the SIA’s draft guidance on how it will police Martyn’s Law from Spring 2027. Five minutes to read. Your one chance to influence how the regulator behaves before the law lands.
OCS has acquired City Group Security. Around 600 City Group officers move under the OCS umbrella, weighted toward London and critical infrastructure contracts. If you work alongside either, expect integration over the next 12 to 18 months. Watch escalation paths and contact lists.
Thanks for reading. If you found this useful, forward it to one colleague who’d benefit — that’s how this grows.
Until next Tuesday.
Andras
Deputy Security Operations Manager / Control Room Supervisor
The Control Room