‘Unintended consequences’ for places of worship under Protect Duty

The Ven. Luke Millier, the Archdeacon of London, has warned that proposed government legislation on public security connected with terrorism could have unintended consequences for churches.

Writing in a blog post, Millier, who is also the chair of the Faith Sector Panel of the London Resilience Forum, said that the legislation, which aims to legislate for a duty on those who own or manage publicly accessible places to take actions to reduce the threat of terrorism, could have very significant unintended consequences for places of worship and would need to be ‘significantly adjusted if it is not to give terrorism a win’.

Martyn’s Law, as the proposed legislation is known, would require staff at venues, of which churches would be included, to be trained and aware of the nature of threats, likely attack methodologies and how to respond. This could be a burden on time and costs, but could also disproportionately affect faith organisations which depend heavily on volunteers.

Millier warned that the duty will be onerous and costly even though it is supposed not to be, and also that the proposals use capacity of the building rather than the nature of the event as the threshold for the duty.

Millier is encouraging as many individual places of worship and people from the faith communities as possible across the country to consider and respond to the consultation.