About Us
What is Public Security?
The term Public Security is a relatively new one and has no formal definition, however, it is best described as referring to the broad national effort by all levels of government to protect a country's territory from threats, internal and external, natural and man-made (much like the American term ‘Homeland Security’).
Unlike the United States, the UK has no formal department of Public Security, instead this job falls under a number of departments, including:
- The Home Office
- The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
- Ministry of Justice
- National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
- Department of Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR)
- The Ministry of Defence (MoD)
Public Security includes:
Emergency preparedness and response (for both terrorism and natural disasters), including, police, medical (including the voluntary sector), emergency management and fire personnel; often referred to as the blue light services.
- Domestic intelligence activities, largely today within the security services.
- Critical infrastructure protection, including private utility companies.
- Border security, including both land and maritime borders.
- Transport security, including air, sea, rail and bus/coach transportation.
- Biodefence; (CBRNe)
- Detection of radioactive and radiological materials.
- Research on next-generation security technologies, for example biometrics.