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CBI Chief should sit on COBRA

Government must do more to consult business to ensure that Britain is fully prepared to deal with the threat from terrorism according to a report published today by Demos, the leading independent think tank. Joining Forces: From national security to networked security, argues that central government, the Police and Security Service need to work more closely with business in planning for and responding to terrorists attacks.

“It is time to dispel the dangerous myth that government has a monopoly over security”, says the report’s author Rachel Briggs, Head of International Programmes at Demos. “The unwritten, unspoken assumption remains that government leads and business follows; that government has a monopoly on useful information and intelligence; and that ultimately it is the state that ‘delivers’ security for the UK.”

“In the aftermath of the London bombings and the subsequent abortive attacks last month, there’s been an outbreak of feverish talk about ‘community participation’ in counter-terrorism. But we’ve head little from the Police and politicians about the role that companies should play.”

“Defeating this new brand of terrorism will require radical thinking about the way our national security machinery is organised. The last bastion of secrecy will need to open its doors and find practical ways of engaging companies, as well as communities. Otherwise, we’ll be fighting terrorism with one hand tied behind our backs.”

The report notes that 85 per cent of terrorist attacks in the world are against business targets. It also points out that the private sector controls the majority of Britain’s critical national infrastructure - such as water, electricity, gas, telecommunications and banking. Without closer co-operation between business and government, these economically vital services are open to future attacks.

“Business needs to be at the heart of decision-making in a crisis”, says Rachel Briggs of Demos. “It makes no sense for key institutional tools to be staffed exclusively by civil servants and politicians with limited commercial experience. As a matter of course, a place on the COBRA committee should be reserved for a senior business representative such as the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry.”

The report welcomes a number of developments including Project Griffin, a partnership between the Metropolitan and City of London Police with the financial and business community. Designed to mobilise an army of over 1,500 private security guards as police support in the event of an emergency, Project Griffin officers played a key role in sharing and disseminating information to London-based businesses on the morning of the 7th July attacks.

Notes to editors

  1. Joining Forces: From national security to networked security is published by Demos on 16th August 2005. Copies can be downloaded from http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/joiningforcesbook or ordered from Central Books on 020 8986 5488.
  2. Rachel Briggs is Head of International Programmes at Demos and runs the ‘Joining Forces: Tackling global security through local partnerships’ research programme. Her previous publications include The Unlikely Counter-Terrorists (ed.), Doing Business in a Dangerous World and The Kidnapping Business.
  3. Demos is an independent think-tank. This is the first publication in a major research programme on global security, ‘Joining Forces: Tackling global security through local partnerships’.