The report of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods is enclosed.

Martyn Hett was one of the people murdered in the Manchester Arena terrorist bombing attack on 22 May 2017. Martyn’s mother, Figen Murray, has been campaigning since then to improve the security at event venues. She has campaigned for the introduction of “Martyn’s Law”, legislation to create a coherent and proportionate approach to protective security for venues. The law would apply to any place or space to which the public had access. For small venues this might simply require an addition to their already mandated fire plan, for bigger more complex venues it would require a more holistic approach. It consisted of five core requirements:

·         that spaces and places to which the public have access engage with freely available counter-terrorism advice and training;

·         that those places conduct vulnerability assessments of their operating places and spaces;

·         that those places mitigate the risks created by the vulnerabilities;

·         that those places have a counter-terrorism plan; and

·         a requirement for local authorities to plan for the threat of terrorism.

A report from the Strategic Director Neighbourhoods explained that the government has undertaken a review of opportunities to use existing legislation to achieve these requirements and had accepted that there was no single piece of legislation that would encompass all of the proposals contained in Martyn’s Law. It would require new primary legislation to be passed and enacted.

Whilst primary legislation would take some time and was beyond the Council’s control, the report explained that within the Council there had been an assessment of the existing powers available to the Council that would present the opportunity to strengthen or amend to support the proposal.

In the absence of any specific legislation the Council was not able to require licensed venues to put in place all measures advocated in Martyn’s Law. However, the Council could implement a degree of control through the Licensing Policy with the potential to introduce policies that sought to place specific counter-terrorism conditions when new licences were granted by the Council, or when license variations were approved. All licensing applications would still need to be considered on their individual merits and such conditions could only be implemented where a relevant representation had been made or the applicant volunteered them as part of their application. Premises operators could also voluntarily seek to incorporate new conditions and there would be merit in engaging with the license trade to encourage that. To progress this the existing suite of 'model' licensing conditions was being revised to incorporate specific counter terrorism measures, including a requirement for a counter-terrorism plan to be in place with associated staff training.

Figen Murray addressed the meeting. She said that the law, if enacted, would not be burdensome for venues to comply with, contrary to some media reports about it. She expressed her thanks and gratitude for the way the Council was striving to implement the provisions of Martyn’s Law within the existing powers.

The report explained that whilst the process for new 'model' conditions was relatively informal there would need to be a short public consultation before they were presented to committee for approval. As this work was already underway it could be concluded within the next few months. The suggested model conditions were to be put to a meeting of the Licensing Committee in the next week, on Monday 20 January 2020.

To incorporate counter terrorism related measures into the Licensing Policy would require a full statutory review, involving a protracted and lengthy process. Therefore, any changes through a review were unlikely to come into effect until 2021.

Officers would now explore how the principles of Martyn’s Law could also be voluntarily implemented locally through participating licensed premises. There was also a desire to seek to coordinate similar actions across Greater Manchester, and work on that would continue.

There were no direct implications set out in the report on how the proposals would contribute to the Council’s response to the declared climate emergency.

Decisions

1.         To endorse the work to date to support the work progressing to improve public safety and security.

2.         To endorse the proposed changes to licensing conditions and to require that these are presented to Licensing Committee at the earliest opportunity.