Euro Services Directive poses “major threat”

British Security Industry Association (BSIA) chief executive David Dickinson has expressed “concern” over the proposed European Directive on Services which threatens to provide the opportunity for ‘self-employed’ or ‘temporary overseas’ workers to come to the UK and offer services (including security) in accordance with regulations adopted in their home nation rather than our own.

Speaking at the IFSEC Annual Awards Dinner at Birmingham’s Metropole Hotel, Dickinson said: “Where end users used to favour one approach to a security problem, they’re now looking increasingly towards a total solution encompassing manned, electronic and physical elements. This means that innovative companies are planning ahead to find the best way of providing holistic security packages for customers in order to produce the most cost-effective solutions.”

Dickinson added: “When I say cost-effective I don’t mean cheapest. There’s no merit in producing a cheaper package that doesn’t provide the right level of security to meet the risks faced. It’s for this reason that the European Directive on Services is a major threat to what we’re all trying to achieve in terms of standards in the industry. It would create a by-pass to the regulation of existing standards, allowing unlicensed individuals to operate in the manned security sector and harbour a blatant disregard of established practices in others.”

The BSIA supremo is hopeful the Government will take these concerns on board in the coming months. In addition, there’s another area in which the BSIA would wish to see Westminster taking positive action.

“There’s no doubt about the crime prevention value of an intruder alarm,” added Dickinson, “yet there’s no real incentive for homeowners to purchase high quality systems which are eligible for a police response, other than the occasional enlightened insurance company’s premium reduction.”

According to Dickinson, there’s a real opportunity for Government to take the lead by removing VAT “or making the purchase and installation tax deductible for those householders putting in a monitored system for the first time.”

There’s now a tangible need for the security industry in general to focus more on outcomes “rather than the minutiae involved in how we get there,” suggested Dickinson. “While processes and procedures must always be followed to ensure the credibility of systems and services, the challenge and the opportunity is to focus more closely on what we wish to achieve in terms of our contribution to crime prevention, crime reduction and the safeguarding of assets, and – most important of all – the safety of people.”