A Westmark service
Assess every building you hold, on one control set, for one annual fee
The assessment tool Westmark assessors use, licensed to your authority for your own officers. Twenty controls, the same twenty at a library and at a leisure centre, with a dated record at each one.
The demonstration is free and commits you to nothing. It runs against one of your own buildings.
The position this duty creates
Four things that make this duty expensive
The same question at every building
The duty falls on the responsible person at each premises. A council holds dozens of them, and each building answers the question in its own way on its own spreadsheet.
No two answers comparable
When the answers arrive from every building in a different format, there is no single position across the portfolio. There is a folder, and somebody has to read all of it before scrutiny.
An assessment fee at every door
Bringing an assessor to every qualifying premises would settle the question properly and cost more than is easy to justify across a whole portfolio.
Nothing dated to point at later
Section 27(5) of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 provides that proof of having acted in accordance with the statutory guidance may be relied on as tending to establish that no contravention occurred. What counts is what you actually did. A dated record of what was in place helps you show it, and an undated spreadsheet written by the venue manager is a weaker one. The Act gives no special standing to any assessment tool, and Westmark claims none.
What a licence changes
What you get
Everything an officer needs to assess a building properly
- The assessment tool itselfThe same tool a Westmark assessor works in, licensed to the authority, opened by your officers under their own accounts.
- Unlimited premisesAssess as many buildings as you hold. Nothing in the licence counts them.
- The published standard and control setIn full, so an officer reads exactly what a control asks.
- A dated record per premisesHeld against the standard version it was made under, and exportable for the risk register or a scrutiny paper.
- Officer trainingDelivered by a separate training organisation within the scheme and run against your own buildings.
- A calibration sessionSo two officers reach the same answer on the same evidence, which is the part that makes a portfolio-wide position mean anything. Delivered by the same training organisation.
- Updates as the standard movesIncluding the changes that follow the Security Industry Authority's final enforcement guidance.
- A named contactFor the questions that arrive once officers are using it day to day.
Two routes, designed to be used together
Licence the tool across the portfolio. Commission assessment where it counts.
Licence the assessment tool
One annual fee for the authority
- Your officers assess your premises
- Unlimited buildings under one licence
- One control set across everything you hold
- Training and calibration included
- Records dated, held and exportable
- Your own work, held as your own record
Commission an assessment
Quoted per premises or per event
- A Westmark assessor carries out the work
- Enhanced premises, qualifying event or standard declaration
- Timed lockdown and live communication test at the enhanced tier
- Front-line workers interviewed on their own
- Technical review by a second person before anything is issued
- A positive outcome is published on the register and can be verified by anyone
How the fee works
One annual licence for the authority, banded by the number of premises you hold that are likely to qualify. The band covers every officer who needs an account and every building you choose to assess. There is no per-premises charge and no per-seat charge inside a band.
| Band | Qualifying premises held | Annual fee | Typically |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band A | Up to 25 | From £7,500 | A smaller authority, or a single directorate taking it on first |
| Band B | 26 to 75 | From £10,500 | A district or unitary authority |
| Band C | 76 to 200 | From £15,500 | A large unitary or county authority with leisure and culture in-house |
| Band D | Over 200 | Quoted | A combined authority, or a group of authorities licensing together |
Fees are annual and exclude VAT. The band figure is what a single authority pays. It rises above that only where more than one training cohort is needed to get your officers through, or where several authorities licence under one arrangement, and in both cases the figure is quoted in writing before anything is signed and holds for the licence year. Where your premises count sits on a band boundary you are quoted the lower band.
The fee covers the tool, accounts for every officer who needs one, the published standard and control set, officer training and the calibration session, updates as the standard moves, and a named contact. Training is included again in any later year where new officers join. There is no separate implementation charge and no charge per building.
How it starts
Tell us roughly how many premises you hold
An approximate number is enough to place you in a band. Nothing needs to be exact at this stage.
See it run against one of your own buildings
Half an hour, online or in the room, with the officers who would use it. Free, and there is nothing to sign afterwards.
Licence and train
The licence runs for a year from issue. Officer training and the calibration session are arranged in the same window.
Work through the buildings at your own pace
The position across the portfolio is visible from the first building onwards, so a scrutiny paper can be written before the last one is done.
Before you ask
The questions that decide it
Does licensing the tool make us compliant?
Compliance stays the authority's own judgement and responsibility. What the licence gives you is a consistent method, a published control set to work against, and a dated record of what you assessed and what you found.
Is the tool approved by the Security Industry Authority?
The tool carries Westmark's standing alone. The Act creates no approval scheme for assessment tools, so treat any claim of approval by the Security Industry Authority, the Home Office or a police force with care and ask who is said to have given it.
Does training us and then assessing us create a conflict?
Training and assessment are kept apart. Officer training and calibration are delivered by a separate organisation under the scheme rules, which stands outside the process of reaching an outcome, so Westmark assesses work it took no hand in preparing. Where Westmark later assesses premises whose officers that organisation trained, the fact is recorded on the engagement.
Can we put a mark on a building we assessed ourselves?
An assessment your own officers carry out is your own work, and it stands as that. The Westmark Protected Premises Mark is the result of an assessment carried out by a Westmark assessor and reviewed by a second one.
The standard is at version 0.9. Should we wait?
Four items are held open pending the Security Industry Authority's statutory guidance under section 12 of the Act, which sets out how the Authority will exercise its regulatory functions. The Authority consulted on a draft between 15 April and 12 June 2026 and has said it will publish the final guidance and a consultation report in autumn 2026. As at 13 September 2026 both were still awaited, and version 1.0 follows when they appear.
The Home Office statutory guidance under section 27, which tells a responsible person what the duty requires, is a separate document and is already published, most recently updated on 25 August 2026. The control set is built around it, so waiting on the Authority's guidance only costs you the time you have before commencement. The licence includes the update, and every record states the version it was made under.
Who else can see what our officers record?
The authority alone. Records under a licence are the authority's own, held privately and kept apart from every other licensee. They are yours to export before a licence ends, in a form you can read in any office application.
What to tell us in the first email
- The authority, and the directorate or officer who would hold the licence
- Roughly how many premises you hold that are likely to qualify. An approximate number is enough
- How many officers would need an account
- Whether leisure, culture or venue management sits in-house or with a trust or an operator
- Whether anything is already driving a date, such as a scrutiny committee or an audit
That is enough for a band, a fee and a demonstration date. Nothing in it commits the authority to anything, and there is no form to fill in.
Half an hour now, or a folder of spreadsheets later
Tell us roughly how many premises you hold. We will come back with a band, a fee, and a date to show you the tool running against one of your own buildings.
hello@westmarkassurance.co.uk · 033 33 356 873