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Blog publish date is 27/01/2025 Physical Security

High Throughput Bag Screening Test Method - Survey

The risk of attacks involving the use of firearms, bulk amounts of ammunition and IEDs in venues and public spaces is a persistent and evolving threat. This creates the need to develop new solutions to help reduce the vulnerabilities. The rapid detection of large threat items concealed on people or within their belongings is essential, especially where the use of traditional checkpoint-based screening measures is not feasible, affordable, or proportionate. For example – the entrances to sites or buildings, busy and crowded public places like visitor attractions and shopping centres, transport hubs, and large sporting or music events.

Many venues and events are taking a proactive approach to strengthening their protection against a terrorist attack, by considering the benefits of implementing tech solutions. Several of these technologies for screening people have developed quite rapidly, with some of them available commercially. However, there remains concerns around the screening of bags at high throughput venues.

There are some bag-screening options out there, and others in development to complement the existing high throughput people screening solutions. Combined together, these may offer complete, viable screening solutions for venues.

What is currently missing for high throughput bag screening solutions, is a test standard to evaluate the detection performance of these systems. NPSA, the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Home Office have partnered to work with industry and end users to develop a test standard for high throughput bag screening (HTBS) systems.

Our aim is to understand the performance metrics, operating environments, and reporting mechanisms that are most useful to industry to communicate performance capabilities of their products. Those test results need to be communicated in a meaningful way to end users to allow them to compare one product or detection setting easily and subjectively with another, to determine what is suitable for their environment. 

To help us design a test method that meets security managers’ needs, we asked you for your thoughts through a survey which is now closed. However, if you would still like to send us your feedback please contact NPSA via the contact form. 

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