General Meeting talk - Fay Tennet on 'A Terrorist Attack'

Fay Tennet returned to us on Tuesday 15 September (photo) to share more about her fascinating tenure as Deputy Director of Operations at the Houses of Parliament. Her talk today centred on her perspective of a major terrorist attack in 2017 and drew on materials in the common domain.

She set the scene for us - Wednesday 22 March 2017 was a typical day in Parliament with Prime Minister’s Questions (Theresa May), both Houses sitting, post BREXIT protests outside, the usual stream of visitors, over 5000 people on site and at 2.40 pm that day a car crashed into a New Palace Yard post. Escaping from the car, the terrorist met a policeman, PC Keith Palmer and fatally stabbed him several times. He had deliberately run at people until he was shot by uniformed officers. His car had come over Westminster Bridge and mounted the pavement twice with the road barriers saving many lives that day. This carnage took 82 seconds but felt much longer. 

In her office Fay had heard the news on the radio and what sounded like an explosion so suspecting a terrorist attack within the building, her police training and well rehearsed manoeuvres kicked in.  More police arrived and specialist and armed response teams too. The site was locked down as were all Whitehall buildings and government buildings in the UK. The hope was that it was a lone wolf attack. Once the site was deemed safe, decisions had to be made about whom the police should talk to, to identify witnesses etc. Only after that
process could people be released from lock down. This inevitably took time and frustration occurred as people were released at some distance from where they wanted to be. 

By now all of this was taking place under the watchful gaze of the media.  Many staff were traumatised by what they had seen and support and counselling were needed. After an emergency meeting chaired by Black Rod, both Houses sat the next day. A Security Review was announced and the Tours programmes reopened on Saturday. Books of Condolence were opened, flowers were laid in Parliament Square, cards and
messages were logged and handed over to the police. The Palmer family was able to lay flowers for Keith and his body lay in the Parliament Chapel until his funeral took place later in Southwark Cathedral.

Understandably, lessons have had to be learned from this terrible day and recommendations for example implemented on yearly progress checks, greater use of security experts, provision of more armed officers, etc.
There is no going back, the world has become so much more dangerous and we have to live within this new order. 

Thank you Fay for another very interesting talk.