As SMT went to press, Security Industry Authority (SIA) chair Molly Meacher and chief executive officer John Saunders officially launched the new Home Office body – aimed at licensing and regulating the security industry – at London’s Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster.
The objectives of the new Authority are to raise standards, increase professionalism in the industry and “exclude the criminal elements who abuse positions of trust”. These goals will be achieved by collaborating with the industry and other stakeholders in setting standards and criteria for licensing individuals and approving contractors and security companies.
One of the biggest challenges facing the SIA is to communicate effectively with the representatives and information providers of the 500,000 individuals working in the industry, and the many thousands of security companies operating across the country. The conference represented an inaugural step in that process.
Despite the shock resignation of Home Office minister John Denham from the Government (due to feelings evoked over the current military action being taken in Iraq), it’s very much “business as usual” for the SIA.
In the coming months, the SIA will decide which skills are needed to hold a licence. Those skills will vary according to the type of security work being carried out, and will be published as and when they are devised. Anyone applying for a licence will have to show that they have the appropriate professional ability for the job, even if they have been working in the industry for some time. Necessarily, this will probably entail attendance on an SIA-approved training course.
As the licensing programme rolls out in the prescribed sectors – wheel clampers and door supervisors are first to be regulated, followed by security officers and consultants – SIA inspectors will have the right to enter certain types of premises such as security company offices to check that staff hold valid licenses.
These inspectors will be working collaboratively with local authorities, the police and other agencies to ensure a co-ordinated approach to enforcement activity. Crucially, those operating in the industry post-licensing who don’t hold a licence themselves could face prosecution. The penalty on conviction in a Magistrates’ Court being six months’ imprisonment, a hefty GB pound 5,000 fine or (potentially) both.
The milestone launch conference, also due to be attended by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens and Thomas Berglund (chief executive of Securitas Security Services) was convened to set out some details for the first phase of licensing.
A full report on the event will be published in the May edition of Security Management Today.
For further information on the SIA, take a look at: www.the-sia.org.uk
