The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 and regulations, place a legal responsibility on UCC as the employer, to exercise a ’duty of care’ towards staff, students and visitors. When managing the risk of potential for violence and aggression towards employees, students and visitors, security measures are the risk control options of choice.  At UCC the security function is managed by General Services, who enable compliance with the ‘duty of care’ responsibilities. Good practice in security management acknowledges the need for close alignment between related security disciplines and, indeed, with other disciplines that rely upon, or are relied upon by, security, including health & safety.

All operational security risks need to be captured on the School or Department Risk Register. On the basis of common scope or severity, risks may be escalated to the relevant College or Functional Area Risk Register. Risks concerned with security systems and their deployment, managed by the General Services Security Department should be captured on the B&E Functional Area risk register. Security risks which potentially impact the achievement of the University’s strategic objectives are assessed by the Risk Management Committee for inclusion into the UCC risk register, administered by Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). As part of the ERM audit process, the ERM Function will check whether the local Responsible Person (manager) has identified a risk of violence and aggression in the workplace as being reasonably foreseeable. Where such a risk has been identified, the ERM function will check whether the key components of operational violence and aggression risk assessment and control have been documented.

UCC Buildings & Estates, General Services manages all security related activities in conjunction with relevant Schools/Colleges/Functional risk areas. Further information can be obtained by visiting the Security webpage.