The SIA register
You can apply for a licence by filling in an application on the SIA website.
Andy Drane, Director of Operations at the Security Industry Authority explains why SIA Licence it is so important:
While we have no legal duty to check the right to work of individuals in our licensing decisions – that duty rests with the employer – we are continually improving the rigour of our processes to ensure, as far as we reasonably can, that SIA licence holders are not illegal workers.
Indeed, it was the close operational work and information exchange between ourselves and the Border and Immigration Agency that revealed the extent of illegal working across the diverse and burgeoning private security industry.
We have built tighter controls into our application procedures to ensure higher standards of security. We’ve also improved information exchanges with our operational partners. This means that we are now refusing and revoking more licences than ever before. So far, we have refused 10,000 licences and revoked about 8,000 (including the 7,000 already mentioned).
This is good news. It means that SIA licensing is still helping to drive up standards. However, it also makes it even more important that security suppliers and employers of licensed security operatives use our readily available online Register of Licence Holders to check licensed status and the validity of licences.
The definitive check as to whether someone is licensed is the public Register, not the licence card itself. Our Register of Licence Holders is available 24 hours a day on our web site and, of late, it has been made even easier to use.
It’s essential that suppliers of licensable security operatives use the Register regularly to protect their customers, their reputations – and to help reduce their own liability. It’s an offence for a supplier to provide unlicensed security operatives where the activity is licensable, and the public Register is an important tool to help avoid this happening.
The Register should be used regularly and routinely to check new and existing licensable employees – we know that many security suppliers and some customers are already doing this. Although the possession of a physical licence is reassuring for public display, it’s not absolute confirmation that the wearer is licensed.
We are constantly reviewing the licensing process to help ensure that only those entitled to do so attain or retain licensed status. As ever, there will always be more that can be done. Working together, the SIA, suppliers and customers will ensure that licensing continues to protect the public from unsuitable people being in positions of trust and authority.
