Protecting Facilities: Personnel and Visitors

All licensed organizations in Canada must develop a comprehensive biosecurity plan, in accordance with the Canadian Biosafety Standard. This biosecurity plan must be based on a biosecurity risk assessment. The assessment is designed to protect and secure assets, including:

•        pathogens and toxins
•        related sensitive information, and
•        documentation about controlled activities

People are vital to your facility's success, safety, and security. The licence holder is responsible for establishing measures to protect the health and well-being of personnel and anyone visiting their facilities. This responsibility includes putting measures in place to ensure the success of the biosafety and biosecurity measures in place.

Comprehensive screening and background checks for all people in the facility helps prevent security violations. They help assess the risk that someone in the facility may be targeted or the facility's biosafety and biosecurity may be compromised or threatened by bad actors. Organizations should implement strong visitor policies and procedures related to personnel security in their biosecurity plans, including:

•        validating that visitors have legitimate need for site access
•        providing all visitors with ID badges for easy identification
•        keeping a log of all visitors to the laboratory and making this registry available to the Public Health Agency of Canada upon request
•        establishing a procedure for visitors to notify the organization of regulated material that they may be bringing to the facility
•        identifying any threat objects that a visitor may be transporting or bringing with them to the facility
•        providing clear expectations to personnel when visitors are in the facility (for example, securing sensitive information and identifying suspicious activities such as visitors taking pictures)
•        encouraging the reporting of suspicious behaviour, theft, or sabotage by visitors
•        adopting a “see something, say something” approach among staff

In addition, organizations should consider:

•         restricting visitors from accessing the facility during off-hours
•         inspecting and keeping inventory of materials removed from the laboratory by visitors
•         obtaining authorization from senior management or designated individuals before allowing visitor entry into:
•    a containment zone, or
•    restricted zones where sensitive information or critical support systems are found
•         ensuring visitors are abiding by the instructions of senior management or designated individuals
•         ensuring visitors are escorted at all times while on site
•         ensuring individuals responsible for escorting visitors understand their responsibilities

For more information, please refer to:

•         Canadian Biosafety Guideline: Developing a comprehensive biosecurity plan
•         Identifying assets in biosecurity risk assessments
•         Canadian Biosafety Guideline: Conducting a biosecurity risk assessment

If you have questions about preparing for visitors or conducting a risk assessment, please contact biosafety.biosecurite@phac-aspc.gc.ca.