A British tech firm, which provided security during the Coronation, is to make its tech platform available for free in the wake of Martyn’s Law.
Halo Solutions, which is behind crowd safety, incident and threat management platform, Halo (V5), said it felt “compelled to do something constructive and positive within the industry.”
The proposed legislation, officially called the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill sets out the requirements that venues and other organisations have to meet to ensure public safety. It has been prepared in direct response to the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack and is named Martyn’s Law as a tribute to Altrincham PR manager, Martyn Hett – whose mother has campaigned for a change in the law.
“Making the entry level Halo System available to all small businesses in the hospitality and entertainment industries is morally and ethically the right thing to do,” explained Lloyd Major, Founder and CEO of Halo Solutions, who is a former police and counterterrorism officer.
“It has long been a passion of mine to ensure that everyone could benefit from our technology to protect the public, right since the very first concept. The Manchester Arena bombing inquiry has profoundly affected many people, not just the families of those who died. All too often we hear that ’lessons-will-be-learned’ and very rarely does anything ever change. The families and all of those affected by this tragedy need to see positive action taking place and a greater responsibility and accountability for the protection of the public against terrorism. With the tireless campaigning by Figen Murray OBE, the mother of Martyn Hett, to enshrine greater counter terrorism protection in law for the public, we wanted to play our small part in helping to protect the public, the timing and purpose of this as the enquiry closes really appropriate and right.
“Every year when we review our prices, this has been #1 on the agenda and it’s a terrific indictment of everything that we’ve achieved now we’re finally able to do this, and I’m especially delighted to be the first in our industry to do it. We’ve made our entry level system available for free to assist those venues in taking the appropriate action to protect their customers and the wider public . Everyone benefits from having access to the Halo system, which strikes directly to our core principles and ethos of ‘Let’s protect everyone’.”
The new law will require public and private-sector businesses to ensure they have sufficient and robust security measures in place to uphold the “protect duty” and ensure public safety. This means that thousands of pubs, restaurants, live music venues, arenas, stadiums, shopping centres and entertainment complexes will be required to take much greater responsibility to protect and safeguard the public against a possible terrorist attack.
