The threat level in the United Kingdom has been raised and Soldiers have also been deployed on streets in bid to prevent further attacks.
Operation Temperer is a plan to deploy troops to support police officers in key locations following a major terrorist attack. It was put into effect for the first time following the Manchester Arena bombing.
The plan provides for up to 5,100 soldiers to be deployed to “augment armed police officers engaged in protective security duties” at key sites in major UK cities.
Threat levels were originally produced by MI5’s Counter-Terrorism Analysis Centre for internal use within the British government. Assessments known as Security Service Threat Reports or Security Service Reports were issued to assess the level of threat to British interests in a given country or region. They had six levels: Imminent, High, Significant, Moderate, Low and Negligible.
Following terrorist attacks in Indonesia in 2002, the system was criticised by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament as insufficiently clear and needing to be of greater use to “customer departments”.
|Critical||An attack is expected imminently.||
|Maximum protective security measures to meet specific threats and to minimise vulnerability and risk. Critical may also be used if a nuclear attack is expected.|
|Severe||An attack is highly likely.||
|Additional and sustainable protective security measures reflecting the broad nature of the threat combined with specific business and geographical vulnerabilities and judgements on acceptable risk.|
|Substantial||An attack is a strong possibility.|
|Moderate||An attack is possible, but not likely.||
|Routine protective security measures appropriate to the business concerned.|
|Low||An attack is very unlikely.|