Free electronic copies (in PDF format) can be downloaded from the publications section of the SIA website.


How the Security Industry Authority works in an age of government austerity - maybe even coming together to some extent with other related bodies - is set out in the SIA latest annual report.

A joint statement by chairman Baroness Ruth Henig and chief exec Bill Butler spoke of costs being managed effectively and ‘that the burden on those affected by our regime is proportionate to the risks to the public. As a part of this, we are considering with the Home Office, Criminal Records Bureau, Disclosure Scotland and the Independent Safeguarding Authority the best ways in which the organisations can work together.’

In the joint statement they hailed licences issued to those working in the private security industry well within our target times. They spoke of ‘successful delivery in new sectors (where decisions are made to proceed), and in supporting the Government’s drive to reduce cost’.

Events are proving that nothing can or does stay still at the authority. The chairman and chief exec’s joint statement says: “Provision for regulation of vehicle immobilisation businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is contained in the new Crime and Security Act 2010 which enables us to license them. It will be for the new Government to decide whether and when these new powers will be brought into force and implemented. An announcement will be made in due course. Similarly, ministers will be deciding on plans for future licensing of Enforcement Agents (Bailiffs) in England and Wales and Private Investigations, where preliminary work is already under way. The newly structured training qualification, currently in place for most existing security sectors, is being rolled out for door supervisors, The Home Office will be making an announcement as to whether a ‘top-up’ to that qualification will be required in the future for door supervisor licence renewals.” To clarify, the Ministry of Justice will rule on any bailiff badging. The report does not give any clue as to when or if any of the extra badging will go ahead.

As for enforcement, the SIA reckons there’s 97 per cent of security operatives correctly licensed or deployed. During 2009/10, with others, the regulator carried out random inspections at 770 venues across the UK, and checked 2,387 individuals. Of these 2,319 (97pc) were properly licensed. The report said: “We are reviewing our approach to compliance to ensure that our resources can be increasingly focussed on those few who are not compliant.”

By March 2010, there were over 127,000 individuals working for 655 approved
contractors, up from 119,000 working for 610 approved contractors in the previous year.
This is a lower rate of growth than in previous years and there are signs that the number
of ACS businesses is likely to stabilise in the range from 650 to 700, the document says. In what might be a sign of the recession biting into already low-margin contract guarding, approved contractor status was withdrawn from 20 organisations over the year 2009-10, compared to six the previous year. That said, the SIA is taking in more money - most of its income is from licence fees, which in 2009-10 went up to £33.8m from £31.7m the year before. ACS income rose too, to £2.3m from £2.1m. Spending went up too, by a sixth, from £32.3m to £37.6m, which left a surplus of just under £1m. Spending on staff also went up by about a sixth, or £1.9m, and accommodation spending rose by £365,000 to £1.5m. However the report speaks of a ‘strategic decision of the board to seek to hold the licence fee at £245’ - last put up in 2007.

Some new faces at the regulator: Stephen McCormick was appointed as Director of Service Delivery, having been Director of Strategy and Business Development for Shared Services at the Home Office, and Dave Humphries joined from HM Revenue and Customs, as the Director of Compliance and Enforcement.

The 82-page document runs through the SIA events of the last year, including the Sabrewatch court conviction, and fine and order for the retail guarding contractor to pay the £1m court costs of the SIA; and in December 2009, the coming in of compulsory licensing for security people in Northern Ireland: “This created a single consistent licensing scheme throughout the UK.”

The report stressed that the SIA seeks to be proportionate, while making plain it has to consider not only the people badged, but the wider public and government, namely to ‘help people feel secure in their homes and communities, to cut crime, (especially violent offences, and drug and alcohol related crime) and to protect the public from terrorism’.

While the report like any other seeks to show the best face of the organisation, there are signs of troubles, for example over the SIA’s own February 2010 staff survey. According to the document: “The survey has highlighted a number of areas where we need to work with staff to improve the way they feel about how we work as an organisation. We are putting in place arrangements with staff to help us do this.” The SIA’s average level of sickness and absence was 6.8 days per employee, a rise of one day (from 5.8 days).