Metropolitan Police

Vital support at a critical time

7 July 2005 is a date likely to be remembered for many years to come. It was a day when, as the tragedy of the London bombings unfolded, many people were faced with extreme situations where their reactions could make a real difference to the lives of others.

Interserve staff were deeply involved with the Metropolitan Police, handling the aftermath of the events on the streets and below ground.

Interserve has delivered an exclusive service to the Metropolitan Police since 1999 in support of all major operational activities associated with scenes of crime and major incident response. The Special Events team of highly trained staff works on a 24/365 basis to support all the MPS’s major operational activities, whether these be planned events, such as Wimbledon and the London Marathon, or in response to crimes, accidents or disasters.

The team became aware of the terrorist attacks on 7 July through the radio. As soon as it was clear what had happened they loaded two 7-tonne lorries with the kind of equipment they knew from experience would be needed - tarpaulins, emergency lighting, tents, body bags, masks, traffic cones and much more - and sent it to the location that would be co-ordinating the MPS’s operational support.

“By the early afternoon it was obvious that this was a major incident and we’d be heavily involved,” comments Paul Starkey, Interserve’s General Manager on the MPS contract. “One immediate issue was organising sufficient staff to support the police over such a wide area while maintaining our cover for all the more normal incidents – which, of course, continue to occur regardless of whether there’s been a major incident. We brought in 20 additional staff who are usually responsible for maintaining the MPS’s properties and set up a 12-hour shift system with them working alongside a similar number from our Special Events core team.”

The MPS uses various buildings around London to help manage such events. In this case it was also necessary to co-opt other properties and sites near the bomb locations, and Interserve needed to set these up and run them for the duration of the alert. They ranged from command-and-control centres to bereavement centres and casualty bureaux providing information and comfort to relatives. “In effect we had to create about 10 fully-functional offices from scratch,” continues Starkey. “Tables, chairs, paper, pens, boards, fridges, kettles, air conditioning, fans, computers – and it all needed to be assembled, wired up and working.

“Then there were the incident locations themselves – our teams were working in conjunction with the police officers at the four incident scenes within hours of the blasts, providing water supplies, rubble sacks, gloves, masks, goggles, body bags, lighting towers, generators, brushes, disinfectant, footbaths, tents, cutting tools and more. We keep a lot of these items in stock, but the scale of this incident was such that we had to hire and procure a considerable amount on top of that. As the days progressed we found ourselves exhausting local supplies of the more unusual equipment and had to look further afield. I think the furthest source was a supplier in Liverpool for some special-purpose head lamps. We established a rolling programme for the replenishment of fuel supplies to generators – and they got through a lot of fuel.

“Our key role was the managing the logistics of sourcing, delivering and deploying all this equipment, in addition to dealing with the rapid response for day-to-day emergency work.” The nights were very busy initially and the pressure kept up for almost two weeks as the focus moved from dealing with the casualties and the bereaved to running the criminal investigation.

Throughout this time Interserve worked very closely with the officers and staff of the MPS. Malcolm O’Connor, the MPS’s Assistant Director of Operational Support, summed up his appreciation for the dedication of those involved, saying, “Thank you to you and your staff for your help in this policing challenge. Throughout the crisis Interserve remained at its core providing vital technical support and solving procurement problems.”