Guidance to Councillors on Personal Safety

Dear colleagues,

As a local councillor myself, I am very aware of the fact that we can sometimes be given cause to worry about our personal safety, either related to national or local events.

I have been asked on a few occasions about whether there is any support available for local councillors to enhance their personal safety or to receive a briefing on measures that we are able to take and have previously pointed elected members in the direction of some general advice, or their Neighbourhood policing team.

With this in mind, I wanted to make you all aware that Counter Terrorism Policing (what used to be called Special Branch) are offering a new round of personal security briefings delivered on Microsoft teams, week commencing 4^th December for locally elected representatives as well as local faith leaders following increased concerns arising out the events in Israel and Gaza. I believe some of you may have already received this notification from your local policing inspector, but I wanted to ensure that all councillors were aware of this offer.

Counter Terrorism policing have emphasised that whilst there has been a significant increase in reporting of hate crimes and incidents, at this time, we have no information to suggest that there is a heightened threat to locally elected representatives or their staff, nor for faith communities,  including those from the Jewish faith. This is under continual review and should there be any change this will be circulated to you.

The briefing for councillors in the South West will take place on 8^th December. However, there is also a national briefing taking place on the evening of 6^th December which may be more accessible for some. The Teams links for these meetings are below.

Counter Terrorism Policing have also compiled below a range of open source advice and guidance on safety and security for reassurance and ease of reference.  In particular, they would draw your attention to the free ACT e-Learning counter terrorism awareness course, the The Blue Book: A Guide to Personal Security | ProtectUK, The LGA's guidance on personal safety and the National Cyber Security Centre guide for individuals in politics

NPCC, CPS, The Electoral Commission, College of Policing

• Joint Guidance for Candidates in Elections 2021 (electoralcommission.org.uk)

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust has excellent guidance for lone working in every situation: 

• Personal Safety at work | Suzy Lamplugh Trust

• www.suzylamplugh.org/personal-safety-at-home, 

• www.suzylamplugh.org/personal-safety-and-law).

As always, the Constabulary and I would encourage you to report any concerns you may have or incidents you have been subjected to on the following lines.

Reporting an emergency - Call 999 if you are reporting a crime that is in progress or if someone is in immediate danger.

Reporting non-emergencies – you can Report crimes online or by calling 101 if they are not an emergency.

You can also call 101 to give information to the police or make an enquiry.

In addition, you can also link in with your local neighbourhood Inspector to discuss any concerns you have. They have been briefed to be your local points of contact. If you do not know who your local inspector is, their details are below.

Cheltenham: Insp Mike Yates Michael.Yates@gloucestershire.police.uk

Cotswolds: Insp Simon Ellson Simon.Ellson@gloucestershire.police.uk

Forest of Dean: Insp Nick Cook Nicholas.Cook@gloucestershire.police.uk

Gloucester: Insp Ash Gardner Ashley.Gardner@gloucestershire.police.uk

Stroud: Insp Paul Cruise Paul.Cruise@gloucestershire.police.uk

Tewkesbury: Insp Grant White Grant.White@gloucestershire.police.uk

Thank you all,

With best wishes

Nick Evans

Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire