All perimeters will require points of access and for secure perimeters, this is the optimal location for controlling access for authorised personnel. For the purposes of this guidance, NPSA use the terms Entry/Exit, Access and Check Points interchangeably.
Access points, by their nature, provide channels for people, vehicles and materials to move through the perimeter. Consequently, they are vulnerable to a wide range of hostile activity, including for example:
- Reconnaissance
- Physical attack, with the aim of penetrating into the site. Please refer to guidance entitled Forced Entry Standards – A guide to forced entry protection standards for facades and other building elements used within UK.
- Physical attack on personnel located at the access point (in this scenario, there is no intention to penetrate into a site. e.g. drive by shooting)
- Smuggling of weapons/items into the facility
- Theft/unauthorised removal of items from the facility
- Persons attempting to gain unauthorised access to the facility, through for example:
- Deception
- Concealment
- Placing persons under duress
- Distraction
- Tailgating
- Sabotage or tampering with systems
- Facilitation by insiders
- Bypassing the entry point altogether
To provide effective mitigation against this broad range of threats requires a holistic approach to physical, personnel and cyber security. Consideration should be given to the following issues:
- Design of the access point to limit the vulnerability to reconnaissance and to minimise the effects of blast/other weapons on the asset to be protected.
- Surveillance, monitoring and lighting systems to detect and track hostile acts
- Access control measures to permit the entry of authorised personnel and procedural control measures to permit the entry of vehicles, materials, deliveries etc
- Search and screening of people, their belongings, vehicles, materials, deliveries etc
- Hostile vehicle mitigation
- Measures to protect the guard force from attack, including for example blast or bullet resistant guard houses, body armour etc.
- Use of pedestrian perimeter barriers to support access control measures, permit the closure of the entry point when non-operational or to reinforce security during certain threat scenarios
- Guarding and response force requirements
- Emergency egress/access requirements (e.g. evacuation)
- Contingency requirements (e.g. blocked entry/exit point)
Further information on each of these areas can be found via the links on this page.