Mark Morgan, Business Manager at Police Crime Prevention Initiatives, explains practical steps to help foster a safer environment in the hospitality sector.

Can you give our readers an overview of what Licensing SAVI is and what inspired its creation?

Licensing SAVI was developed following a request by the Home Office to Police Crime Prevention Initiatives to improve safety within the hospitality sector.

The aim was to build an accreditation process held on a digital assessment platform, having nationally consistent advice and recommendations against a question set specifically designed to support on-licensed premises in being safer places, enhancing security and reducing vulnerability within the hospitality industry.

This in turn helps to contribute to safer socialising and increased perceptions of safety for the wider communities.

How did you personally get involved with this initiative, and why is the nighttime economy an area of focus for you?

I served as a police officer in various roles across London and Merseyside for 30 years. 

Throughout that time, I was always involved in responding to or tackling incidents and problems associated to licensed premises.

From responding to disturbances and assaults as a patrol officer, being part of more proactive responses in relation to identified problem premises, through to running the licensing teams in Liverpool. 

Through wider policing roles such as commanding the response at high profile events, reacting to terrorist incidents and working in lots of extensive partnership work – it is clear that there is an extremely wide remit for those managing licensed premises to consider and have proportionate measures in place.

Sadly, I’ve seen on too many occasions the adverse impact upon people and their families from incidents such as ‘one punch’ assaults or spiking and want to do all I can to reduce such incidents happening again.

A specific module of my policing degree focussed upon violence attributed to the night time economy and I place significant value upon the benefits of partnership work – having a collaborative and consistent approach to maximising safety within the hospitality industry.

I’m well aware of the economic and social benefits of the licensing and hospitality industry, however also know that people want to socialise is safer environments. 

Our work aims to support the hospitality industry to be safer while enhancing income.

How does Licensing SAVI work with venues and local authorities to proactively prevent crime and disorder?

The question set, advice and recommendations contained within Licensing SAVI was developed with input from a huge variety of individuals who can positively contribute in terms of ‘what does a well run licensed premise look like’. 

This included Police and Council licensing officers, Police ‘designing out crime’ officers, Counter Terrorism officers, representatives from the Fire Service, Health & Safety.

The content is extensive and can be described as a ‘one stop shop’ for advice and guidance re all things safety, security and reducing vulnerability.

Good practice regularly changes, so we have an open-offer to anyone using or promoting Licensing SAVI to provide feedback upon content, which we often tweak or adapt to ensure that our product is as current as possible and provides the best advice possible to support hospitality venues.

From a venue perspective – a representative, usually a manager, will take the digital assessment, often describe as a ‘health check’, which takes about 40 minutes to first complete. 

At this stage everything is confidential to the user, who is then presented with a star rating (out of 5) and with bespoke advice and recommendations depending upon their answers. 

A significant factor for us is that we want venues to improve and better themselves where applicable, so we encourage hospitality venues to implement the advice provided.

For example, briefing staff on how to identify vulnerable people and what they can do to support them – as this is easy to execute while adding no further costs. 

They can then update their assessment, hopefully improve their score and when satisfied – can apply for our accreditation.

In terms of implementation, how do you ensure Licensing SAVI leads to real-world improvements in safety?

We are very conscious that owing to regular turn over of staff in the licensing and hospitality industry, those managing venues are consistently ‘chasing their tail’ in terms of staff training opportunities being available for bespoke sessions.

These often take place at inconvenient times and take little account of the unsociable hours worked by hospitality staff.

We’re also very aware of adverse media and there have been many recent examples where ‘mystery shopper’ checks have been undertaken at venues with hospitality staff having no or limited knowledge of well known schemes. 

As such, we advocate the benefits of Licensing SAVI as a digital tool, available 24/7 to support venues with materials which are simple yet effective.

We encourage lots of dialogue between hospitality managers and their staff – in routine chats throughout a shift, asking about protocol to follow in certain situations to check the staff understand their role or identify any knowledge gaps which we can help address.

An academic evaluation of the Licensing SAVI initiative, conducted in Telford in 2024 showed a 24% reduction in violence with injury offences and a 17.9% reduction in reported incidents in Licensing SAVI accredited premises. 

We were very pleased to see that in 40% of venues, their scores (star rating) had increased between initial and final submission suggests working practices are improving.

68% of survey respondents expressed increased confidence that hospitality staff would be safer and 74% felt more confident that patrons would be safer. 

Violence against women is a major concern in nightlife settings, what practical steps or strategies does Licensing SAVI promote to help tackle this issue?

Having a wife and being a father to a teenage daughter, coupled with having seen too many times the adverse impact of violence against women, preventing such incidents is a key priority within Licensing SAVI. 

We have been working closely with the National Police Chiefs Council VAWG group, together with an associated subgroup and firmly believe we contribute to the pillars of work, specifically ‘creating safer spaces’ and ‘building trust and confidence’. 

Recognising the importance of this workstream, within Licensing SAVI, we have a specific question set around female safety, wider staff safety, vulnerability and extensive advice raising awareness of the VAWG issues. 

We have many template policies and guides which cover associated worsktreams including re drugs misuse, spiking, harassment, child exploitation and a bespoke female safety policy for hospitality venues to implement. 

Is there enough collaboration between venues, police and public health teams to address substance-related risks?

There are many references and academic pieces of work which rightly identify drugs use as a major contributor or aggravating factor in violent crime –  and that was certainly the case in my policing career. 

Many hold a view re ‘drug spiking’ looking to blame others, as opposed to the key issue of dealing with the vulnerability.

Zero tolerance, as a term, is often taken in the wrong context. 

I believe it should be considered as a generalisation and is one of a ‘suite of options’ available.

It sets a standard, but as with all policies, discretion should be allowed to deviate where a common sense approach shows that it is the most proportionate measure to take.

Having previously led a policing operation in support of a significant sized music festival, I support the use of the loop – where drug testing did take place at the event, however I feel there is a big step to extending such practice into mainstream licensed premises.

Having spoken to many in the licensing sector about such testing practices, I’ve found that outside of the nightlife scene, there is little to no appetite for such practices to be furthered.

There is a real fear that the floodgates may open to wider drugs use in premises, which will in turn impact upon the volume of non-drugs users who socialise in such premises. 

Having a zero tolerance stance does not in turn mean that a public health approach should be ignored, as there are clear benefits to such.

For example, a middle ground can exist where a venue takes a stance that they will not encourage or indeed tolerate drugs misuse within or from those frequenting a venue. 

If appropriate, signage can be discreetly used (e.g. within toilet areas) which highlight the potential dangers of drugs misuse and signpost to available support services within hospitality venues. 

Anyone who is found using drugs, does not necessarily need to be reported to the police, who in all fairness are very unlikely to either want or be able to criminalise a social drug user without other aggravating factors. 

However, the next steps taken by the venue could well be a short-term exclusion, whilst also making efforts to signpost the user to health support services. 

Such a stance could well be described as zero tolerance, however is simply adhering to the venues principles, whilst not criminally implicating the relevant individual.

Further considerations exist around what duty of care to customers exist if a venue ‘tolerates’ drugs misuse by allowing drugs testing at their venues, especially when considering that in the UK – there is no one testing kit which can confirm the existence of all commonly used types of controlled drugs.

Further complexities will exist if hospitality insurers allow overt drug testing (pre-use) at venues, what condition they apply to policies and whether they understand the complexities and implications.

This article was originally published in the May edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.