As I write, the Olympic Torch Relay is in action and we now have less than 60 days before the Olympic Games start. This weekend, of course, has witnessed the fabulous celebrations for Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
At the Security Industry Authority, we’re continuing to work on supporting the delivery of a secure and safe Games. We’re ensuring that our licensing processes can handle the processing of new applicants, have put in place our plans to ensure compliance at the Games sites and, more broadly, we’ve continued to reinforce our ‘Be Aware and Prepare’ campaign.
Our guidance summarises some of the issues that face the private security industry over the coming summer and is available from the Olympics section of our website. It addresses the broader needs for private security beyond London and the Olympic Park itself, including the things that private security companies need to plan for. We also make it clear that we will not be relaxing our requirements for licensing.
In May we launched our new look Facebook page and, to support this, we offered a free armband licence holder for current and new followers.
We received more than 16,000 views to our page. As a result more than 600 new people started to follow our page and 800 armbands were sent out.
Our digital communication channels continue to provide a very cost-effective way of interacting directly with licensees and the industry.
Strategic Consultation Group meeting
We held a further Strategic Consultation Group meeting with industry representatives, in turn continuing to build relationships and ensure that we are moving forward to a new regulatory regime that will meet industry requirements.
In Northern Ireland, Department of Justice Minister David Ford is seeking views on the future regulation of the private security industry. This consultation period will close on Friday 24 August 2012.
I also had the opportunity to speak at a conference hosted by the Regulator for the Republic of Ireland. It was interesting to note the many areas of common interest between the regimes – including training, the particular issues pertaining to small businesses and the level of enforcement – and to discuss how we might work more closely together while also improving cross-border co-operation.
I also appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee on 22 May to be questioned by MPs in relation to the regulation of private investigators. The Committee was interested to know about future plans to regulate such activity and what our own views are on the matter.
The Committee had previously interviewed the Security Industry Authority about our licensing performance and the chairman asked for an update. I was able to tell him about the improvements made to licensing times and the fee reduction.
Bill Butler is chief executive of the Security Industry Authority
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