Action stations

Who's going to pay the licence fees? Should the Approved Contractors Scheme be voluntary – as it stands at present – or mandatory? And then there's the heated debate surrounding in-house employees and whether or not they should be subject to the same terms of operating reference as their contracted cousins.

Now, the draft Civil Contingencies Bill ('Strong in attack... Civil in defence', pp18-20) has thrown up the notion of how UK plc might redefine its response mechanisms to deal effectively with national and regional emergencies as and when they arise.

There's little doubt that any crisis situation on the scale of 9/11 would overburden our already-stretched police forces and other public services, not to mention the privately-owned public utilities. Viewed in this light, it doesn't take a massive leap of the imagination to surmise that security professionals might then have both a vital and central role to play in restoring civil order for the masses.

Those professionals could eventually be part of a new tier of civil protection – described in the draft Bill as 'resilience bodies' – created to co-ordinate responses by national and local Government. Will that actually happen, though?

A further conundrum arises here. Would private sector security operatives be willing – and able – to perform civil duties more traditionally expected of the military and police?

Presumably, the Home Office would have them entering dangerous environments where chaos reigns in order to protect buildings and sites of destruction, deter looters, rescue survivors and lead them to safety. All that before tending to the injured and dealing with the unenviable prospect of decontamination duties. It's not that simple, though. Would the intelligence services be conducive to giving out adequate information to active security officers? There would also be huge responsibilities placed on heads of security in instructing an evacuation. Could they cope with such pressures? Only if security personnel are properly trained, paid and licensed... but any willingness to intervene on the part of contractors would help improve the industry's image no end.