Officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary have led a multi agency exercise to test procedures for searching large public premises.

A total of 53 Gloucestershire officers travelled to Portsmouth in two groups over separate dates, where they carried out a detailed search of a cross channel vessel provided by P&O Ferries.

Sergeant John Garner, of Gloucestershire Constabulary, said it had been a very valuable event.

He said: “We and our colleagues in other agencies do everything we can to ready ourselves to protect the public should the need arise.

“We need opportunities to exercise our search trained officers in a variety of different locations and situations. Searching a ferry to the standards we are required to meet in a criminal investigation is a huge undertaking and presents some unique challenges.

“This is why we were so pleased when P&O offered us use of one of their fleet, and why we were so pleased that our colleagues from the other agencies agreed to work with us.

“It has been a very useful event in terms of testing our search procedures and our working arrangements with partners, and we are very grateful to all those agencies who took part for their cooperation and involvement.”

As well as Gloucestershire Constabulary, the exercise involved the Ministry of Defence Police, Hampshire Police, the Portsmouth Ports Authority, P&O Ferries, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the UK Border Agency.

As well as the search activity on the ferry itself, a control room was established at Hampshire Police Headquarters to run the tactical side of the exercise.