To ask the Minister of Education for his assessment of the training that is required for teachers and support staff in schools to (i) carry out security risk assessments; and (ii) respond to a critical security incident in school.

The Education Authority (EA) carry out training within schools and have provided the following response:

Carry out Security Risk Assessments

Whilst the EA offer no specific training for this type of risk assessment, schools are advised to complete the Security Risk Assessment to be found in the Department of Education publication Security and Personal Safety in Schools. This assessment is intuitive, to be completed after reading the guidance, with no training required for its completion. For more complex risk assessments involving specific situations, the EA provides generic Risk Assessments for Violence at Work, a Marauding Assailant and Site Security which can be found under Generic School Risk Assessments and Generic School Site Premises Risk Assessments respectively.

Respond to a critical security incident in a school

In preparation for the impending Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act, a UK wide piece of legislation also known as 'Martyn's Law' which is expected later this year, the EA will be uploading a security Lockdown Procedure for schools to its health and safety Manual for Principals and Governors. To support and enable planning for such emergency situations, a template for a school emergency plan will be released to all schools online in the Summer of 2025. Any requirement for security training required by the new legislation for 'standard tier' premises, of which most schools are, will be also addressed by the EA at that time.