15 years ago, I sent ex-SAS men to test parliament’s anti-terror defences... but glaring risks STILL exist

JAKE Gibb, the interloper who climbed a wall into the Scottish parliament and wandered around until eventually confronted and apprehended, has pleaded guilty to relatively minor charges. But had he been a terrorist intent on death and mayhem we might now be looking at more than just embarrassment on behalf of the authorities.

Security at Holyrood was addressed some 15 years ago by my firm at the request of parliamentary staff.

Our review was carried out by two ex-SAS operatives who, unlike other security companies at the time, approached it by assessing how they might enter and cause mischief on the parliamentary estate rather than how they might stop others doing so.

Some of the results of this exercise and subsequent report are there for all to see: the bollards on the pavement on the High Street and the public entrance lobby added on to replace the old one.

The latter should really be called the Clive Fairweather entrance, after the late ex-Deputy Commander of 22 SAS, who recommended it in place of the previous arrangement.

I have no idea what other measures the authorities may have taken, except that the most obvious gaps in security – the entrance to Queensberry House and the vehicular access at the back – have apparently been fixed.

One threat which may not have been sorted, however, is the one from above.

Back in 2005, this was deemed a somewhat unlikely, top end of the spectrum mode of attack, by mortar or possibly glider.

Memories were fresh of IRA homemade mortar attacks against security forces in Ulster during the Troubles.

The Scottish parliament is probably still wide open to attack from above.

Much of the building has a glass roof, and whilst this may be reinforced glass it almost certainly is not bombproof glass.

Many people may think that the idea of a terrorist attack on the Scottish parliament is the stuff of fantasy and should be laughingly dismissed out of hand.

I would refer them to President Biden’s recent visit to Belgium, where Belgian police were photographed in the streets with portable antidrone missile systems on their shoulders. They were clearly taking the threat seriously.

Whether the appropriate agencies at our parliament have had the foresight to invest in some sort of defence against this modern threat I do not know. But if they haven’t, perhaps they should.

Unfortunately, despite all the improvements over the past decade or so, slip-ups still occur.

The last time I entered the parliament building, I queued behind a mother with her child in a pushchair.

At her turn, she went through the security gate but, with much cooing and clucking, her child and pushchair were admitted round the side, bypassing the scanner altogether.

An entirely understandable and kind gesture, of course, but anything could have been hidden under the child’s seat or in the body of the stroller. And if I notice such little things, others actively looking for flaws will too.

In the final analysis, the best defence against terrorists and ne’er-do-wells is intelligence, which allows potential incidents to be disrupted well before they happen.

The biggest encouragement to those who would do us harm is complacency.

As Thomas Jefferson probably did not say: ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’ We would do well to remind ourselves of this from time to time.