Good Housekeeping

Good housekeeping improves the ambience of your premises. It helps to reduce the opportunity for placing suspicious items or bags and dealing with false alarms and hoaxes.

You can reduce the opportunity for devices to be placed by considering the following points.

• avoid the use of litter bins in and around your premises if possible, (but if you do this ensure that there is additional and prompt cleaning)
• alternatively review the management of your litter bins and consider the size of their openings, their blast mitigation capabilities and location, i.e. do not place litter bins next to or near glazing
• the use of clear bags for waste disposal is a further alternative as it provides an easier opportunity for staff to conduct an initial examination for suspicious items
• review the use and security of compactors, wheelie bins and metal bins to store rubbish within service areas and goods entrances
• keep public and communal areas – exits, entrances, reception areas, stairs, halls, lavatories, washrooms – clean and tidy, as well as service corridors, yards, fence lines and boundaries 
• keep furniture to an operational minimum – ensuring that there is little opportunity to hide devices, including under chairs and sofas
• lock unoccupied offices, rooms and store cupboards
• ensure that everything has a place and that things are returned to that place
• place tamper proof plastic seals on maintenance hatches
• keep external areas as clean and tidy as possible
• all premises should have in place an agreed procedure for the management of contractors, their vehicles and waste collection services. The vehicle registration mark (VRM) of each vehicle and its occupants should be known to security or management in advance
• pruning all vegetation and trees, especially near entrances, fence lines and boundaries, will assist in surveillance and reduce the opportunity for concealment of any persons, equipment or items.

Additionally consider the following points:

Ensure that all staff are trained in bomb threat handling procedures or at least have ready access to instructions – and know where these are kept. (See bomb threat checklist)

A review of your CCTV system to ensure that it has sufficient coverage both internally and externally

Management should ensure that Health and Safety equipment such as Fire Extinguishers is identified as belonging to the premises and implement a regime of checks to ensure  that they have not been interfered with or replaced

All premises security systems should be supported by an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and be regularly tested.