On Thursday 12 September, the new Government published the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill foreshadowed in the King’s Speech on 17 July. It takes forward most of the proposals in the previous government’s bill of the same name but with some significant tweaks. According to the accompanying ministerial statement,

“We have raised the standard tier threshold from 100 to 200, to create a more appropriate scope of the duty;

The ‘reasonably practicable’ standard of requirements, now applicable in both tiers, is designed to allow procedures and measures to be tailored to the specific circumstances of a premises or event. This will enable duty holders to take into consideration what is within their control and the resources they have available to them, as well as what is suitable and appropriate for their premises or event; and

We have removed the requirements for a specific, prescribed form of training and the completion of a mandatory standard terrorism evaluation form—in recognition that a one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate and could be onerous.”

So far as places of worship are concerned, Paragraph 11 of Schedule 1 provides that premises used for “communal worship or other communal religious practice” will be regarded as “standard duty premises” – which attract the less onerous level of compliance. Further, under Clause 2(2)(a), a building will only be “qualifying premises” at all if “it is reasonable to expect that from time to time 200 or more individuals may be present at the same time in connection with one or more uses specified in Schedule 1”.

That proviso would appear to exempt very small places of worship, such as most Friends’ Meeting Houses, completely. It remains to be seen, however, what the standard tier threshold will mean in practice: will it exempt large rural church buildings that could easily accommodate 200 or more but which have tiny congregations?

The scheme will be regulated by the Security Industry Authority.

The Home Office also published the outcome of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill standard tier consultation that was carried out in February 2024 by the prevous government.