London, 21 October 2010 – The security business of MITIE, the strategic outsourcing company, has held an Olympics strategy round table to engage with its clients likely to be impacted by the Olympics and other national events in 2012. 

The goal of this first round table was to define MITIE’s security strategy for 2012 to ensure that it continues to support its clients during a challenging time. 

Andy May, Security Client Relationship Director for MITIE, commented: 

“The round table had two primary aims. Firstly for us to give our clients an update on Olympic planning and resilience considerations for all businesses and secondly to facilitate a discussion on what the key security requirements for 2012 were likely to be.” 

Along with key clients from transport, CNI, banking, and retail, Andy May was joined by Bob Forysth, Security Managing Director for MITIE and Brett Lovegrove, Strategic Adviser Police and Public Services for MITIE security, who presented his views on resilience planning – not only for the Olympics, but also generally for the business. His key message was that the UK is ahead of the rest of the world in terms of contingency and resilience planning. He also recommended that in planning for 2012 businesses adopt an “all hazards approach”. 

Brett says: “Businesses should take a sensible approach to risk assessment focussing on the key risks, yet developing training that would enable crisis management teams to manage an incident, no matter what its cause.”

David Evans, BSIA Project Director also attended and gave an update on current planning considerations for the ODA and LOCOG. He outlined that the key threats during 2012 are; terrorism; serious and organised crime; domestic extremism and natural hazards. For planning purposes it has been assumed that the threat level for the UK will be at Severe. David discussed his key considerations for planning but his ultimate message was to take planning action now. 

Bob Forsyth closed the session by reiterating that MITIE’s priority during the Olympics and other events in 2012 is to meet its existing security commitments and support clients with additional needs during the period. Officers working for MITIE’s security business will receive regular communication between now and the games to raise their awareness of potential issues. 

ENDS

For further information, contact: 

David Revis, Marketing and Ecomms Manager, MITIE Group PLC
T: 0203 123 8681 M: 07979 702465, E: david.revis@mitie.com 

Erica Lockhart, Investor, Public & Media Relations Manager, MITIE Group PLC
T: 0203 123 8675 M: 07979 784488 E: erica.lockhart@mitie.com

Notes for editors

What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing company. What does that mean in practice? We manage facilities, properties and assets for our clients across the UK and beyond.

We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise, others may only need one aspect of what we do:

Strategy and consultancy
+ Facilities and project management
+ Service delivery

Our strategic input can add value at the highest level by helping clients to manage their assets, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and reduce their carbon emissions. We work with a vast number of clients in every industry across both the public and private sectors and deliver the broadest range of services that can be found in one place: from integrated facilities management to engineering maintenance to lifecycle energy management and much more.

There’s a lot more to MITIE than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions – a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 56,000 people, revenues in excess of £1.7bn, and a reputation for being the best.

Visit us at www.mitie.com