Indeed, the Regulator has stated quite clearly that individuals can report security companies who deploy unlicensed operatives, listing “working with a fraudulent licence” and “breaching licensing Terms and Conditions” as two examples of notable misdemeanours.
Exactly how the SIA expects ‘Joe Public’ to query these issues with a security officer – be they contract or in-house – on a company’s premises is certainly questionable.
Add to the debate whether or not members of the public would be particularly interested in doing so – or would have the inclination to approach a door supervisor, for example, on a night out and ask to see his or her ‘Government badge’ to help improve an industry they know little or nothing about – and this kind of whistleblowing becomes even more unlikely.
No doubt the answer from the SIA will be that this policy is designed for those security officers who may wish to whistleblow. There may well be some response here, albeit probably limited. However, it must surely be highly unlikely that those individuals working without a licence, with an expired or fraudulent licence or who have had their licence revoked or suspended are going to ‘rat’ on themselves? Neither would the company employing them?
Such individuals are just happy to have a job. Any job that pays their way. Often we are talking about people who have come to the UK during the recent waves of immigration. Refugees with little knowledge, training or English language skills.
Then there are those that fall foul of the unscrupulous, and are visited by the ‘heavies’ to ensure that they turn up for work even if they are breaking the law. They might be working under cash-in-hand arrangements, stretching their pay by claiming benefits as well. Managers of the pubs and clubs in Wakefield quite obviously didn’t know, care and/or worry about the situation, nor did they carry out self-policing to ensure that staff provided were indeed obeying the rules and regulations.
One might question whether the venues are aware of the system of revocation, suspension, expiration and the evidence of fraudulent licences now freely available on the black market for around the GB pound 50 mark. One might also question the fact that the SIA’s Enforcement Team (of something like 30-plus investigators) is believed to have dropped due to financial cuts imposed in the wake of issues arising from the lack of licence fee income.
Much like the Government’s rhetoric on crime and terrorism, the enforcement process is another exercise that smacks of: “We must be seen to be doing something” when the resources aren’t really in place and the Regulator is unable to act. One might assume that the SIA has limited knowledge of the ‘darker sides’ of our industry. For their part, members of the police service have been unwilling or unable to get to grips with the sharks that exist.
Only when guarding companies break the unseen barriers by profiting too much – or cause embarrassment to a force by treading on influential toes – will action be taken, and usually at a regional or national level. It is an inescapable truth that while clients like those in Wakefield have no option but to ‘go with the flow’ due to the persuasiveness of the door company and buy services on price without suffering any resultant penalties, the status quo is likely to continue.
While the SIA continues to be run on a budget that’s comparable to a shoe-string – in particular when it comes to enforcement – and is forced to raise the licence fee to cover costs solely due to the Government’s intransigence, it remains (much like road traffic violation enforcement within this country) a ‘cash cow’.
The Regulator’s role is an under-funded, thankless task. Just like many other security-related problems – fraud, cyber-crime, illegal immigration and lax background checks in the NHS, to name but a few.
We all want to be safe from such crime. The only problem is that clients are unwilling to pay sensible money for protection. In the case of the Government, it doesn’t want to pay any more than it already is.
Steve Goodwin MBE
General Manager
Noble Security Services (UK)
