Security audit ‘could have saved Sousse lives’
LIVES could have been saved if a travel firm had carried out a security audit before the Sousse terrorist attack instead of an assessment after it, an inquest has heard.
The hearing into the deaths of 30 British holidaymakers – including Blackwood grandmother Trudy Jones – at the resort in Tunisia in June 2015 heard that TUI did not carry out frequent security risk assessments on resorts or hotels before the atrocity.
A TUI boss told the inquest he had been contacted by a security consultancy firm in March, just after a terror attack at the Bardo National Museum in the capital, Tunis.
The inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice, in London, heard TUI appointed the security consultancy firm Covenant to carry out an audit at the resort in July, excluding the Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel where the attack had just taken place.
Another TUI employee, Jacque Reynolds, a director of risk and compliance for TUI, based in the UK, said in a witness statement: “TUI did not carry out regular security risk assessments of resorts or hotels prior to the Sousse attack. The only reviews (of hotels) that had been commissioned before were in Egypt.”
Covenant’s briefing note after its audit said: “The current level of emergency planning and the associated procedures such as evacuation and invacuation need to be enhanced to meet the challenges of the evolving security situation.
“A best guess at this is simply not good enough. This is something that should be designed by security specialists alongside the hotel management because they will need to understand the procedures and communicate them to their staff.”
The briefing note in July came soon after the Sousse massacre and three months after the Bardo attack.
Ian Chapman, regional director for West Mediterranean at TUI, said in his statement that after the Bardo attack he had received an email from Covenant, which carried out the work for TUI in Egypt.
Covenant suggested that it would be “worth while” to meet up to discuss Tunisia, but Mr Chapman said in his statement that he did not arrange a meeting with the firm.
Andrew Ritchie QC, counsel for the families of the victims, put it to Ms Reynolds that had TUI instigated the security audit after the Bardo attack, the company would have had 11 weeks to make changes, and “might have saved quite a few lives by having those things in place”.
He also said to her: “I put it to you that TUI should have audited security on paper or by sending an expert adviser when the FCO (Foreign Office) advised there was a high risk of terror activity after Bardo. Would you agree with that?”
She said she did not agree, adding: “We were told that the advice wouldn’t be changing.”
The inquest will continue on Monday.