Risk Management Guidelines
Cash Handling (Premises Risk)
Introduction
to minimise the potential cash loss
and reduce the likelihood of a till
snatch and grab raid. These limits
should be maintained by periodic
transfer to either the cash office,
locked safe or other secure facility.
Money, i.e. cash, continues to be one of the
most thief-attractive commodities.
Wherever possible the amounts of cash
held on the premise should be kept to an
absolute minimum with non cash
transactions encouraged.
Consider equipping each till position
with a cash deposit facility enabling
the cashier to maintain no more
than a specified amount in the till by
posting surplus cash into a secure
container.
All staff involved with cash exposures, even
those with no direct custody of, or authority
to access money could find themselves
involved in a threatening situation simply
through their presence at the scene of a
criminal attack.
During working hours till limits
should be kept to the absolute
minimum required to minimise the
potential cash loss and in
consequence also reduce the
likelihood of a till snatch and grab
raid.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
requires all employers to provide a safe
place of work and safe systems of work for
employees.
Cash on the premises during
Business hours
Keys should be kept in a secure
facility or on the person of
authorised persons and should not
be readily available to cashiers.
Cash should never be left
unattended
Tills should be left empty and
unlocked out of working hours.
Cash that is not required to be
immediately available to staff (i.e. in
tills) should be kept in locked safes
or secure containers.
Internal Transfer of Cash
Till positions should be well away
from external doors in order to
minimise their vulnerability to snatch
attacks.
Staff-accompanied cash transfers should
be designed to take the safest route,
avoiding potential high-risk areas (e.g.
immediately adjacent to customer entrance
doors, emergency exit routes, shared or
non-staff-only corridors and lifts)
Cash In till limits should be applied
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Cash transfers should be transported within
a proprietary cash trolley incorporating
attack-resistant cash container(s) which are
either permanently bolted or securely
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locked into position, and with the means to
remove cash not available to those
accompanying it. There are a range of
such products available, some with antisnatch alarm facilities, raising a local
audible alarm in the event that the trolley is
separated from its custodian (normally
wrist-link operated), but generally speaking,
the bulkier the trolley, the more likely that it
will be a deterrent to day-time
snatches/raids.
Cash kept on the premises out of business
hours should be kept within a safe or
secure container and any safe or secure
container in use should have an adequate
cash limit suitable for the levels of cash
required.
Safes
Not all safes are intended for safeguarding
cash or valuables against theft, as many
are designed primarily to protect their
contents against fire damage e.g. fire and
data safes.
Alternatively where the volume and weight
of cash to be transferred is small, cash
bags can be used to transport the cash. A
wide variety of bags are available including
cotton coin bags, alarmed cases and
security bags equipped with smoke-anddye packs.
Safes intended for safe guarding cash
should be independently certified by a
recognised certification body such as the
European Fire and Security Group (EFSG)
and the European Certification Board
(security) ECB-S) as having achieved a
particular attack resistance level as defined
in BSEN1143-1 Secure Storage Units,
Requirements, classification and methods
of test for resistance to burglary
BSEN14450 Secure storage units,
Requirements, classification and methods
of test for resistance to burglary. Secure
Safe Cabinets or BSEN1143-2 Secure
Storage Units. Requirements classification
and methods of test for resistance to
burglary. Deposit Systems.
Cash Office
Cash is best managed within a single
location e.g. cash office or room.
This location should be well away from
areas where the public have access and
preferably on an upper floor. If an upper
floor location is not available, then it should,
be located as centrally as possible within
the premises and away from the building
perimeter walls.
The construction of the cash office should
be commensurate with the value of cash
being retained. This will usually mean that it
should be to at least manual attack
resistance with walls, ceiling and doors of
solid robust materials.
Safes with inbuilt cash deposit facilities can
be used to good effect in minimising and
deterring the risk of hold–up especially
where large amounts of cash accumulate
and staff are more exposed to risk either
working late in an evening or alone. Safe
keys should be retained in the custody of
an authorised person and removed from the
Cash on the premises out of
business hours
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premises when the premises are left
unattended.
Safes should:
not be in locations to which the public
have access.
be kept locked at all times other than
when it is necessary for the safe door
to be opened for purposes of
removing or depositing cash
be anchored in accordance with the
manufacturer’s recommendations,
(freestanding)
Locks
Where cash risks are significant safes
should be fitted with at least two locks both
of which should be secured whenever the
safe is left unattended and two persons
should always be required to be present to
unlock the safe.
A time lock can help reduce the risk
of duress or kidnap type losses out
of business hours. The lock should
be set to permit opening of the safe
during normal working hours only.
Time delay locks can provide an
additional deterrent where criminals
are considering a day time raid.
These locks introduce a delay into
the process of unlocking a safe
(whether legitimately or under
duress) and can be programmed for
varying delay durations A minimum
delay of 10 minutes is
recommended
These and other Risk Management Guidelines addressing a wide variety of risk control
issues are freely available from:
http://www.managerisk.rsagroup.co.uk
The information set out in this document constitutes a set of general guidelines and
should not be construed or relied upon as specialist advice. Therefore RSA accepts no
responsibility towards any person relying upon these Risk Management Guidelines nor
accepts any liability whatsoever for the accuracy of data supplied by another party or
the consequences of reliance upon it.
Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc (No. 93792).
Registered in England and Wales at St. Mark’s Court, Chart Way, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1XL.
Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority