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Places of Worship

This scheme was developed and is administered by the Home Office Counter Extremism Unit to provide protective security measures to places of worship and associated community centres in England and Wales who are vulnerable to attack on racial, religious or ideological grounds.

It aims:

  • To provide security hardening measures for places of worship that are deemed to be vulnerable to criminal damage and extreme physical attacks
  • Through independent and expert review, identify places of worship at greatest risk of criminal damage and that would potentially benefit from the implementation of security hardening measures
  • Through provisions of measures, to provide a level of reassurance to places of worship

In each individual case, the security assessment should identify and prioritise the three security measures that will be most effective for that building and will help mitigate against previous, current or possible future attacks as detailed in the aims section above. This can include measures such as (but not limited to); security lighting, CCTV camera systems, shatter proof glass, alarms, perimeter fencing, bollards, etc.

Assessments are carried out by either the Police Counter Terrorism Security Advisor (CTSA), who may already be engaging with prominent places of worship, or the Police Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO).

Further information is available at:
http://www.gov.uk/guidance/places-of-worship-security-funding-scheme