Everyone will be aware of the awful events in France over the last few weeks including the murder of a Catholic priest this week as he led his congregation.
It is, therefore, a timely moment for church leaders to look at the security in their churches. Churches are charities, and so their charity trustees are under a duty to minimise the risks to their church and congregation. Part of this risk might be an attack.
National Operational Police Lead for Protect and Prepare Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu has said:
“There is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK. However, as we have seen, Daesh and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the West and beyond.
“Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship and have circulated specific advice today. We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution.”
It is suggested that church leaders should:
As part of minimising the risk churches should:
As a general principle, all charities, including churches, should regularly carry out risk assessments and put suitable measures in place to manage those identified risks.
It is also worth noting that this week the Home Office also announced the Places of worship: security funding scheme for the provision of protective security measures for places of worship in England and Wales. The scheme is part of a wider cross-government effort to stop all forms of hate crime and to provide security measures to places of worship. Bids for funding can be made for the next 8 weeks until 5pm on 20 September 2016. A second round of bids will open in spring 2017. For further information please click here.
For more information, particularly in relation to risk assessments, please contact Edwina Turner.
Volunteers are often the bedrock of charitable organisations, but they are not protected from sexual harassment within those organisations.
Here at Anthony Collins Solicitors, we have been hard at work advising a charity client, BICMP, on its new music project, ‘Resonance’.
Currently, the only ground for divorce is irretrievable break down of a marriage. Following a consultation, the Government has announced its intention to reform the legal requirements for divorce.
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently made some noteworthy changes to its guidance around data subject access requests (DSARs).
In the fourth part of our series on contract management pitfalls, we look at the risks arising out of varying the terms of construction contracts.
A local authority recently received a "roasting" by the Pensions Ombudsman for their delay in processing an employee’s ill-health retirement pension, following her diagnosis with advanced cancer.
The Times is looking for three or four charities to feature in their editions running in December 2019 and early January 2020.
Cliff Mills defines and talks about the importance of social value in his blog, and its potential within Greater Manchester.
Following a power outage at Anthony Collins Solicitors’ (ACS) Birmingham office, our employees and partners currently have limited functionality, including no access to emails.
Joint ventures present an opportunity for housing associations to build organisational capacity, the revenues from which could help deliver on wider social housing commitments.
To receive invitations to our events, as well as information and articles on legal issues and sector developments that are of interest to you, please sign up to Newsroom.