Risk assessment

Ian Acheson has a CAPX piece on the Greenpeace stunt on Rishi Sunak's home.


Greenpeace’s easy access to the Sunak home should be a serious wake-up call

Oliver Dowden has been a busy man this week. He’s been all over the studios talking about the first ever public release of the UK’s National Risk Register. This government tome lists and quantifies all the current big threats to the UKs security, how likely they may be and what’s being done to combat them.


Risk assessments at every level, but do they work? Apparently Oliver Dowden's didn't, but I wonder if anyone assessed the risk of giving the job to Dowden in the first place?


To recap, at 8am on Thursday Greenpeace released pictures of four activists draping Sunak’s home in black fabric to protest at the Government’s plans to issue new licences for North Sea oil exploration. Police were clearly taken by surprise. After a five-hour stand-off and negotiation, the protestors voluntarily descended and were promptly arrested.

Now, you might just see this as a bunch of tree-huggers playing an elaborate prank when they knew the PM and his family were abroad. That’s true, up to a point. But the serious point is that violent terrorists are on the lookout for any weaknesses.


A chap is bound to wonder if Greenpeace did their own risk assessment on the likelihood of falling off the roof or the chances of being shot. Maybe Oliver Dowden will demand their risk assessment and speak to them sternly if they don't have one.