The Security Industry Authority (SIA) reports that a few months ago it set up a Customer Support Compliance team. That aims to deal with what the regulator terms low-risk compliance issues to resolve them without the need for face-to-face interviews or site visits from SIA investigation officers.
The authority reports that the team has been successful, particularly in dealing with offending around the misuse of the Approved Contractor scheme’s ACS mark or where companies are claiming they are SIA approved when they are not. In a recent case, the Customer Support Compliance team became aware of offending on a security supplier’s website, and the team resolved the issue within four hours.
The SIA makes the point that it can only act on information it knows about. It may use the intelligence you provide to direct our enforcement activity, to support our licensing decisions or as evidence in a prosecution; and forward your report to the police, UKBA, HMRC and others, and they may also take action.
If companies claiming they are SIA approved when they are not, or if you are aware of any unlicensed activity, you can let the regulator know online – visit the SIA website. Or you can report illegal activity anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
As for who the approved firms are, the breakdown of approved contractors by business size (as of mid-September 2014) was:
There are 185 micro businesses (up to 10 licensable operatives)
There are 171 small businesses (11 to 25 licensable operatives)
There are 342 medium businesses (26 to 250 licensable operatives)
There are 71 large businesses (over 250 licensable operatives)
