The ‘meddling’ Security Industry Authority should leave sport alone, says an authority on security and safety at sports grounds, in a rejoinder to an item in the July print issue of Professional Security.
To recap, the May issue saw a news item about the consultation document – Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment on Security Guards at Sports and other Events and the Private Security Industry Act. Briefly, at issue was which staff at a sporting or other event should be SIA – licensed. It prompted a letter from Andy Drane of the SIA, printed in the last issue. Jim Chalmers, President of the Football Safety Officers Association (FSOA), replied and gives in a proverbial nutshell what the FSOA said in response to the consultation document.
Jim Chalmers writes:
The FSOA remains strongly of the view that both the Home Office and the SIA have failed to grasp the fundamental distinction between ‘safety’ and ‘security’ functions at sports grounds and other events and this is very evident in the consultation document.
Since it was established all the SIA has achieved in the world of football and other sports is:
– Confuse stewarding and security roles and responsibilities where there was previously no confusion.
– Created problems where problems did not previously exist.
– Added to the cost of stewarding events with no consequent improvement in stewarding performance.
– Created additional bureaucracy and time-consuming administration at both local and national levels in the world of sport.
Perhaps the greatest indictment on the SIA since they began meddling in the world of sports grounds safety management is that they have added nothing to improving spectator safety. This is principally because the SIA involvement in football and other sports has been driven purely by revenue generation as opposed to improving safety at sports grounds. The FSOA is therefore calling for the remit of the SIA to be excluded from sports grounds. The SIA should get on with what they do best and that is in regulating the private security industry and leave the safe management of sports grounds to safety professionals such as the members of the FSOA, other sports safety officers and the existing sports grounds regulatory bodies.
About Jim Chalmers:
With Steve Frosdick he is author of Safety and Security at Sports Grounds, featured in Professional Security’s February edition. (Paperback, 231 pages. Paragon Publishing, in association with Stadium and Arena Management. ISBN 1 899820 16 7.)
Jim was a 33-year West Midlands police officer, who then worked 12 years at the Football Licensing Authority, until he retired, becoming deputy safety officer at Kidderminster Football Club; and assistant safety officer at Coventry City FC, whose new Ricoh Arena was featured in the April and May print editions of Professional Security. In 1996, he assisted the government of Guatemala after 88 fans crushed to death in national stadium in a Hillsborough-like disaster. In 2005, he was elected president of the Football Safety Officers Association.
