Posted By Alan Haynes You could try asking the Sergeant at Arms at Westminster [I bet he now knows what should be done]

Posted By fats van den raad Simon Intruders into the building after hours would normally constitute breaking and entering, and a monitored burglar alarm system would alert the police to deal with it. (Although they get very disgruntled at continiously responding to false alarms) During the day when the office/building is occupied it is more difficult. If you have someone on site that is unwanted, i.e. an intruder, this comes under the realms of tresspass. Unless you have trained licensed security to remove them from the premises, you would still have to contact the police. I would talk to the local crime prevention officer to establish what the correct course of action would be.

Posted By fats van den raad Jim If the empty house happens to be Buckingham Palace and the little old lady happens to be the Queen, the possibility of getting shot must have been part of the risk assessment at some stage. If it wasn't, the perpetrators deserve to get shot for being so stupid not to at least think about it.

Posted By fats van den raad Jim You're right about the hijack.... apologies With regard to your comment about MP's concerns, I can see where you're coming from. Maybe this newfound concern of theirs over their own safety in the House can be used positively by the professional bodies and trade unions representing those in jobs that are at risk from violence, such as nurses, etc. As far as protection for MP's, Cabinet Ministers, the Queen etc is concerned, it is not a question of whether they DESERVE more protection than the rest of us, it is a question of who is more at risk. The prominent polliticians, Heads of State, etc have and will always be more at risk from attack by loonies, criminals etc than Joe Bloggs, Safety Adviser. Why did Batman not scale the roof of number 17 Average Suburban street, Croydon, to make his case. Coz doing it at Buck House would have a far greater impact, and coverage for his cause. Deserved higher protection or not, the fact is that the protection is there, and it is public knowledge that it is there. So, as far as I am concerned, if you feel the need to breach it, you must expect the possibility of being shot.

Posted By Jane Blunt We have a site where we get a lot of intruders inside the buildings, but it is not always obvious that they are intruders due to the nature of the workplace (more than 1000 people, many of them students so often in outdoor clothing and carrying bags, etc). Therefore our first step is to find out whether they are. The good part about the site being so busy is that there are usually plenty of people about in the daytime. We have a policy that works something like this - if you are suspicious of someone, get a colleague to keep you in vision and at a safe distance while you approach them and ask 'how can I help you?' or something similar. The answer that they give will normally easily differentiate between a student, a legitimate visitor, a curious tourist or an intruder of ill-intent. If the latter, retreat, keep them in sight if possible, and ring the emergency number to get the emergency team (the five people who usually deal with fire and alarms), security and get the message relayed on to the Police. This works quite well; we have succeeded in getting people who were 'casing the joint' arrested using this method. Jane

Posted By Rob Todd I think Tony Martin got it absolutely right!

Posted By Tony O'Hara We had a big problem with a similiar thing. I worked at a large petrochemical complex in the north east of england and had this situation everyday. The way we could get round it was contact the police and have them charge them on a Vagrancy act. As you are well aware very little could be done with regards to trespassing so this was the only way the police could become involved. Regards Tony

Posted By Maggie Atterbury Simon I suggest that you contact your local Police Crime Prevention and Architectural Liaison Officer - or what ever they call them your way. We have recently developed a security policy for our schools and he not only gave us his time and expertise, but also did a morning's training for us to launch the policy. Maggie Atterbury