As part of this new role one of the things I need to review is the vetting & screening process so I had a session discussing the need to do a thorough medical prior to deployment with an occupational health provider. The plan is that since the chaps have to come to Head Office to get their travel docs etc. we could potentially conduct the medical on site. We went through the various requirements including drug & alcohol screening. We chatted about the various alternatives approaches and decided hair samples were probably the most suitable as they give a longer history of any substance abuse. I then naively commented that it could be an issue as most of the Close Protection guys have a no.1 just like in the forces. The Doc promptly came back with, “we don't need to take it from their head”...Speachless!!!

I’ve also spent time learning about Close Protection courses plus Surveillance, Anti Surveillance and Counter Surveillance, Hostile Environments, and Contractors On Deployed Operation training etc. We’ve got the most fab setup - two beautiful buildings one of which is in the middle of the rolling countryside. They’re used for the residential courses and are more akin to hotels with one fairly major exception…one of them has a basement set up to look like an insurgent bunker complete with Middle Eastern artefacts, typical bomb making equipment and hide-aways. Using ‘black light’ the trainees and have to break in, capture the terrorists, deal with potential explosive devices and make secure the premises etc. all slightly surreal. This is highly specialist training and the trainers tend to be ex SAS, SBS or Paras…really nice blokes who told me some of their exploits which make your hair stand on end...Sometimes feel like I've wandered onto a film set or am hallucinating.