Manchester Evening News (04/18/19) Britton, Paul

The U.K. government is under pressure to revamp security arrangements at major venues nationally in memory of Martyn Hett, a victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. "Martyn's Law" would require increased, obligatory security measures at all large U.K. public venues, including mandatory metal detectors and bag searches. Hett's mother has collected more than 13,000 signatures in her petition to pass the law, including that of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who urged the government to convene a "national review" of security at all major sporting and entertainment event venues. He stressed that any review also must consider security measures during and after events, as crowds leave. Burnham's office published a study detailing progress made on meeting 56 security recommendations from the Kerslake Report in the wake of the atrocity, which said 21 of them are complete or substantially complete, while 27 are in progress, and eight demand further progress. "At present, security arrangements are essentially voluntary and this can lead to confusion and variation," Burnham remarked. "I believe there is a clear case for a thorough review of security measures at major sporting and entertainment event venues to establish clearly understood mandatory standards, and I call on the government to initiate one."

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