Guard licence hold-up

Under new legislation on March 20 2006 it became illegal to work as, or supply, a contracted-in security guard without a Security Industry Authority licence in England and Wales. To deal with the last-minute flood of applications, the SIA has temporarily doubled capacity to up to 24,000 per month but the average six week turnaround from application to licence is currently taking twice as long due to the last minute rush of applications.

The accumulation will be processed and dealt with within 8-10 weeks of March 20, says the SIA.

But according to the head of one guarding company the situation is putting small and medium sized business in danger of going out of business. Major Frank Quigley, director of Guarding UK Ltd said the backlog could mean "wide unemployment in the industry, property left unguarded and security companies going to the wall."

And specialist in empty property security, James Campbell, says that the new law is increasing demand for electronic security. His company, Safe Estates, reported a 50 per cent increase in enquiries in 2005 compared to 2004 and "growing concern" about protecting property.

"The new law is expected to send this figure through the roof as many people turn to innovative technology as opposed to security guards," he said. His company provided a set period contract with "a much higher dependency on the latest technological developments in security rather than on manpower".

Offerings include a temporary alarm that can be installed in almost any location without the need for mains power or phone lines and allows 24 hour monitoring via voice recorded controls and and a key fob.

l One subscriber to Security Installer, based in south east Ireland tells us his small installation business is also expanding into temporary security with the addition of a mobile security vehicle which can save manned guarding companies "thousands of pounds".

Frank Flanagan of Crimewatch Security Systems has teamed up with Edward Ennis of Safeguard Fire and Security to provide the "extremely high spec 4-station control room".

The security vehicle includes Pelco high speed cameras on two masts, a bank of Eneo DVRs and Mitsubishi VCRs, covert cameras, bullet cameras, sophisticated Motorola two-way radios, external PA speakers on the roof plus planned ANPR and thermal imaging cameras … and even a bunk bed for the operator to take a break!

Target customers are local authorities, guarding companies, emergency services or corporate events.