Thames Water has awarded an AMP8 contract for a dedicated security patrol and response service to a single supplier worth an estimated £72 million (inc VAT).
Photo: Thames Water's QEII reservoir
The water company has awarded the contract to improve its protective security, particularly for its critical assets, and ensure compliance with associated industry regulations such as SEMD (Security & Emergency Measures Direction) and PSG (Protective Security Guidance).
Thames Water, is required to patrol its critical assets and have sufficient planned response for incidents to ensure compliance, and resource must be trained to respond to worst case scenarios.
Scope of services to be provided under the contract include a dedicated 24/7 service for:
- Proactive patrols and inspections of its sites to provide security presence and check for perimeter vulnerabilities;
- Reactive rapid response to alarms and incidents, and providing security support for police and frontline staff where needed.
The contract has been awarded to First Response Group Ltd - the supplier will need to provide appropriate vehicles, communications and response equipment, and officers that are adequately trained in incident response, enhanced physical intervention, conflict management, etc.
First Response Group will also need to coordinate their staff/vehicles across the Thames region (London & Thames Valley) with appropriate route planning to ensure the water company’s needs and SLAs are met. Reactive response requirements will be communicated to the Supplier by our Alarm Monitoring Centre (AMC).
Thames Water said its key priorities and expectations for the agreement include:
- Security resilience and assurance to improve protection of its sites and more capable response to alarms/incidents
- Compliance with SEMD & PSG regulations
- Health, Safety & Wellbeing focus with increased protection for the company’s staff against public threats/abuse
- Value for Money to demonstrate to OFWAT in line with its PR24 submission, and reducing the cost of damage/loss from security breaches.
Current estimated start and end contract dates are 12 August 2025 to 10 August 2028, with a further possible extension option to 10 August 2033.
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