Scottish Business Resilience Centre: Using Police Expertise to Drive Business Resilience

11.10.21

Blog

Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) has a unique position in Scotland driven by its cross-sector links. It brings together public bodies including the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, and owners and managers from the Scottish business community. Our vision is to become the catalyst that makes Scotland one of the safest and most resilient places to live, work, and do business, both on and offline.

With this focus, we draw on various organisations in different ways, but one of the closest partners we work with to achieve that vision is Police Scotland.

Within the team at SBRC, we have five designated serving officers from Police Scotland. These officers work with us to provide support to all sectors including retail, tourism, finance, construction, manufacturing, transport, and sport. SBRC members gain from unique access to these serving officers who provide education and training packages, enabling the business to be more resilient and proactive towards preventing crime.

To provide this support, we deliver education and preventative training, as well as actively raise awareness of threats that may impact the business community. This work also benefits greatly from the Police Scotland partnership through insights on the latest legislative information affecting businesses, and highlighting crime trends and emerging threats to allow members access to relevant preventative advice. With this support, SBRC can engage a broad range of companies in Scotland with relevant information, and actively look to address areas that are not always given the support they need.

As well as specific cyber crime related information, the seconded police officers at SBRC deliver a range of external presentations on a variety of topics important for business security and resilience. The range of topics includes personal safety, conflict management and insider threat to anti-money laundering, human trafficking, protester activity and many more. A full list of the presentations on offer is available here. To make sure sessions are well suited and include relevant examples, our in-house officers gather organisational information before delivering a session to a company. This also allows officers to provide tailored sessions in response to a business’s specific needs.

Underpinning our partnership with Police Scotland is our work with other “blue light” partners including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service. By having links with these three organisations, it allows SBRC members unique access to Scotland’s three key emergency response services which most businesses simply do not have readily available to them. Our unique position of bringing together Scottish emergency services, public sector expertise and the Scottish business sector makes it an organisation like no other.

The working relationship between Police Scotland and SBRC allows meaningful work to take place for the benefit of the Scottish business community. Through providing preventative information and guidance, we will continue to ensure safe and resilient communities in Scotland both online and offline.

If you are interested in learning more about the SBRC’s partnership with Police Scotland, or to attend the educational sessions we offer, get in touch at: [email protected].