SIA urges guarding contractors

“The Security Industry Authority (SIA) and others in the private security sector have worked hard in support of the need for the industry to transform,” writes Andy Drane.

“There is general agreement that the industry must be seen as a value-added partner to businesses and not merely a ‘grudge buy’ or ‘tick-box’ item to satisfy insurance policies. We all agree on the value of a national training benchmark, on the need for criminality checks and on the necessity for the public and buyers of security to have absolute confidence in front-line personnel. At a time when one would expect security in this country to be top quality, the price-versus-value model is only serving to tighten suppliers’ margins still further. The inevitable consequence is that quality is compromised. Again, we all agree that this state of affairs is unsustainable.

“After three years of widespread consultation, the SIA and the industry made a commitment to introduce licensing for security officers (other than door supervisors) in March 2006.

Licensing 120,000 individuals was never going to be an easy task. However, the SIA ensured that training provision was available well in advance, that the processing systems were in place to implement individual licence applications and – at the request of the industry – that a bulk application process was devised in order to handle the expected huge volumes of licence applications from officers.

“Key to implementation was the assurance from a responsible industry and its constituents that they too would play their part, and would work with us over 14 months to phase-in licensing with minimum disruption to business.

“To that end, the British Security Industry Association gave a commitment that its member companies would submit an agreed number of applications every month from April 2005 onwards.”

Targets have not been met

“To date, most of the industry has failed to meet its commitment. The SIA licensing processes are in place, are ready and waiting to be tested. 120,000 licences spread over 14 months represents around 8,000 licence applications per month. A sensible and attainable figure, and one the industry told us it could attain. So, where are we now, some seven months into the licence application process?

“Of those 120,000 potential licence applicants, 57,000 individuals have requested a licence application pack and 36,000 currently hold the qualifications making them eligible to apply, but how many licence applications have the SIA received? A meagre 9,600 as of 17 August 2005.

“It’s not difficult to do the sums and to know that all is not right. By now, the industry should have met its undertaking to provide the SIA with at least 30,000 licence applications, yet we are 20,000-plus applications short of that figure. A huge gap that leaves our licensing process underused.

“We have planned for licensing, we have our systems in place and we have communicated our capacity. We have made – and continue to make – no secret of the fact that our systems cannot handle a last-minute rush of 100,000 applications in the last few months leading up to next March.

“We have a responsibility to inform the buyers of security services – ie the guarding companies’ clients, the core readers of Security Management Today – of the licensing requirements, and encourage them to ensure their security supplier is compliant with the law.

“To the contractors the SIA would say this: If you are planning to wait to submit licence applications you should warn your clients now that after 20 March 2006, you might not be in a position to meet their needs for security provision.”