That was the message from Jennifer Pattinson, speaking to delegates at a Reliance Security Services conference in Glasgow. Personnel employed in the private security industry in Scotland are due to join their counterparts in England and Wales, who came under the new legislation just over a year ago, in measures designed to modernise the industry and exclude rogue elements.
The new regulations apply to anyone involved in contracted security guarding, door supervision, CCTV operations and a variety of other private security provisions. Applicants must undergo an SIA-approved training course, achieve a recognised qualification and undergo identity and criminal record checks. Security companies can also apply for the Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) – the SIA’s benchmark of quality for customers – and Reliance is one of the first security companies in Scotland to have had ACS status extended to cover Scotland. This has been achieved on the basis of compliance with licence application targets and a range of other criteria.
On an encouraging note, Ms Pattinson said that SIA licence application forms had been requested for some 80 percent of the estimated 17,000 people involved in the Scottish security industry, ahead of the November 1 deadline for licensing. She said almost 14,000 application forms had been requested to date. More then 3,000 applications had been received, of which 2,945 had been accepted.
However, Ms Pattinson was at pains to point out that the SIA was keen to assist the Scottish security industry towards regulation rather than be seen as a bureaucratic barrier. “We are trying to do this with the industry and not to the industry,” she told delegates. In England and Wales, over 200,000 individuals hold SIA licences and it is now an offence to undertake a contract manned security role or to employ an unlicensed person in that position without a licence.
With the processing time for a licence application between six and eight weeks, Ms Pattinson urged those individuals who had not submitted their own applications to do so quickly. A last-minute rush across the border last year led to significant backlogs and some difficulties when the March 2006 deadline was reached. The cost of a licence is GB pound 245 for three years, while training can cost up to GB pound 400 per person.
While it is up to the individual to apply for a licence, Chris Burnell, Operations Director for Reliance Security Services in Scotland, advised other security companies to follow the example set by Reliance and take responsibility for their employees’ applications. This had been the company’s strategy in England and Wales, and had ensured that applications were made ahead of schedule, filed correctly and incorporated into the business timetable.
Ms Pattinson said that the new regulations had already had a significant impact on the private security industry south of the border. She cited the example of a combined police and SIA raid on construction sites on Merseyside last year which had yielded a number of rogue unlicensed security firms, which were also involved in drug dealing and money laundering.
“We know that these are issues pertinent to certain areas of the Scottish security industry and we expect similar actions to be taken when regulation comes in,” warned Pattinson.