Increased, visible enforcement; and ‘digital self-help’ for those applying to the SIA are among themes of the Security Industry Authority’s annual business plan. The SIA intends to have ‘a significantly more visible presence’, the chief executive of the UK sector regulator has said in the document, Mark Rowe reports.
The plan is for the number of SIA posts to top 400; in contrast to many years when it had something like 200 staffers. The rise is explained by the two largest categories: ‘Licensing and Standards’ 145 posts, and ‘Inspections and Enforcement’ 130.
SIA CEO Michelle Russell, pictured, wrote of a ‘proactive approach to our work improving standards and enforcing compliance right across the UK. These changes will have a positive and sustainable impact on supporting public confidence in the private security industry and their role in protecting the public’. As she went on to say in a foreword to the document, this is in response to take the Manchester Arena Inquiry findings and recommendations, as they apply to ‘publicly accessible locations’ in general, besides entertainment venues like the Arena, the scene of the May 2017 suicide bombing. Later in the document the SIA says its inspections will focus on ‘large event arenas, major outdoor events, shopping complexes, larger sports grounds and licensed premises’.
The document covers what the Authority plans to do in 2022-23 to deliver on its corporate plan, the resources that will be deployed, the performance indicators and measures the SIA will use to monitor progress and the ‘key strategic risks’. To repeat, the document states that the SIA will be ‘significantly increasing resourcing, our visibility and impact in our compliance, inspection and enforcement work across the UK’. On the other arm of the SIA’s work (and income) besides SIA individual licences, the approved contractor scheme (ACS), a perennial subject for reform or tweaks, the document speaks of a scheme ‘fit for the future supporting high standards in security provision’.
Doing more inspections implies that more wrong-doing will be found; and the document does say that the SIA anticipates ‘a higher criminal investigation caseload in 2022-23. Like others in law enforcement, the SIA says that its ‘priority will continue to be on those that pose a serious risk or harm’, whether to the public or damage to confidence in the regulatory regime. The plan puts numbers on all that; a 40pc increase in inspection activity across the UK and an increase of 15pc in criminal investigations.
Also on the ACS and the SIA being visible, the business plan says that the Authority will make ‘new assurance visits to 15pc of approved contractors (of which there are around 840) and conducting assurance visits for every ACS assessor’.
On the recently-coined issue of VAWG (violence against women and girls), the document says that ‘preventing, deterring and responding to acts of violence against women and girls, including spiking, requires joined-up, widespread and sustained effort by all’.
SIA in numbers
According to the document, the SIA predicts over the year a total of 140,000 applications for individual licences will be received, ‘around 10,000 higher than experienced in the corresponding year of the preceding three-year licensing cycle. The SIA anticipates receiving over 230,000 ‘service requests’ in the technical support jargon; and 60,000 telephone calls in support of applications. The UK has some 445,000 ‘active licences’, and last year saw the highest ever number of applications received since the SIA began badging the sector in the mid-2000s.
In line with other Government bodies and indeed private industry, the document speaks of ‘a new contact strategy’ whereby the SIA has an aim of ‘reducing avoidable customer contact by 20 per cent’, such as by offering online ‘tools to facilitate self-service to support customers in making and tracking their application’ whether as an individual licence-holder or for a business.
On workforce standards, where the SIA and the industry it licences have at times looked like two dance partners, each waiting for the other to start the dance, the document says on apprenticeships that the SIA will ‘finalise and roll out a scheme for security control room operatives. This will pave the way for apprenticeships in other sectors of the private security industry’.
On training, the document speaks of ‘further steps to identify and guard against training malpractice’, a lingering but little-admitted risk to standards and the reputation of the guarding and door sectors in particular covered by the SIA; again, something that arose in the Manchester Arena Inquiry and its reports so far. Again, the document puts a number on increased visits to training providers; a minimum of 100 over the year is proposed.
On the SIA’s office base – always in London, currently with other public bodies in a block at Canary Wharf – the document intriguingly hints at a move north or a downsizing; as it speaks of ‘reviewing our office space needs as we embed new ways of working following COVID-19 and make a contribution to the levelling up agenda in line with Home Office direction’.
Costs
On the all-important (for those who pay the £190 licence application fee every three years) question of the cost of the application, the document hints at ‘steady as she goes’. The £190 figure is ‘part funded by accumulated historical surpluses’. In the next year the SIA expects to have income of £27.8m from those predicted 140,000 licence applications, plus £2m in fees to do with the ACS. As the Authority expects its spending to be £32m, that means a deficit of £23.2m, ‘which is in line with our £190 fee model’.
You can read the document at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sia-business-plan-2022-to-2023.
