Authority and access
We establish what can lawfully be authorised, who holds that authority and which legal instrument applies. We agree the access needed for a useful assessment and make any limitations clear.
Approach
A clear basis for your next decision
We examine the requirement, compare the options and give you a clear basis for deciding what to do. You retain decision authority throughout.
Evidence before commitment
Further work is a separate choice. Revising the brief or deciding to stop can be the right outcome.
What informs our advice
The whole capability
We examine training, equipment, personnel, information, doctrine, organisation, infrastructure and logistics together. A common assessment scale makes gaps comparable: sufficient, adequate with risk, deficient and absent.
Cost and priorities
We set out three levels of ambition for significant gaps, alongside the consequences of taking no action. Costs, permissions and dependencies inform the recommended order of work.
What can last
We model what the organisation could sustain twelve and twenty-four months after funding or external support ends, including the people, authority and recurring costs it would need.
Our approach to evaluation and sustainmentWorking relationship
Clear boundaries from the start
Governance
The commitments behind our work
The detail is here for clients and funders who need to understand our legal position, responsibilities and handling of information.
Law, liability and insurance
We work under English law unless you require otherwise. Professional indemnity, public liability and employers’ liability cover appropriate to the job is in place before work begins, and we provide certificates on request. We do not seek indemnity for our own negligence, and we do not seek immunity from local law for our people.
Human rights in security and justice assistance
Our work is advice and capacity building for state security institutions. That is exactly the activity the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Overseas Security and Justice Assistance guidance was written to govern. We build an OSJA-style human rights risk assessment into the design of any engagement involving police, military, intelligence or border institutions. It follows the OSJA structure: assess, identify, mitigate, strengthen. We give it to you rather than keeping it internal. If a proposed activity cannot be mitigated to an acceptable level, we say so before it starts, and we decline the work if it cannot be fixed.
The frameworks that actually apply to us
We follow the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which address companies directly. We are also guided by the good practices for states in Part II of the Montreux Document. Those do not bind companies, but they set out what a responsible contractor should expect of itself and of its client.
Why we hold no private security certification
We are not a member of the International Code of Conduct Association, and we hold no certification to ISO 18788 or ANSI/ASIS PSC.1. Those standards certify security operations: use of force, weapons handling, vetting and supervision of guards, detention and site protection. We do none of that, so a certificate would tell you nothing about the work we actually do. We would rather say so than display an accreditation that does not describe us. If you or your funder require membership or certification as a condition of contract, we will obtain it before the contract begins.
Regulatory position
Our work is advice and training. It is not manned guarding, close protection, key holding or vehicle immobilisation. It is therefore not a designated activity under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, on the list of activities designated by the 2006 Order made under it. We hold no armed capability and we do not subcontract one.
Obligations that follow us abroad
As a United Kingdom company we remain subject to the Bribery Act 2010, to United Kingdom sanctions and export control law, and to the criminal law of England and Wales for certain conduct overseas. Complying with local law alone is not enough, and we will not accept an instruction based on the idea that it is.
Information and client material
We hold your material only for as long as the job and any later audit require, and we do not reuse it to win other work. Reports, data and working notes are your property in full.
Start with the decision you need to make
Tell us what you are trying to achieve and what is getting in the way. We can discuss the scope of a useful first piece of work.