The number of ‘active’ SIA licences has topped half a million, according to the February 2025 statistics placed on the SIA website by the Security Industry Authority. The number for January 2025 was only hundreds below 500,000; and now stands at 501,232.
The bulk of those badges are 354,580 door supervisor licences; then comes 61,004 public space CCTV surveillance, and 58,348 contract security guarding. Historically the main badge of choice for UK private security has been for doors, as that allows the holder to work a pub door and do other security guarding; while the reverse does not apply if you have the contract guarding badge. To give the other categories badged by the 20-year-old SIA, some 12,046 are for close protection; 9029 are ‘non-front-line’; 4889 are for CVIT (cash and valuables in transit) and 1322 are for key-holding; and a residual 14 for wheel clamping.
The SIA’s figures also show the break-down by gender, which despite efforts and wishes by the sector to increase diversity, remains stubbornly mainly male. Of those 354,580 door badges, only 37,831 or 10.67 per cent are held by females. The only noticeably different category in terms of male-female balance is non-front-line, where 2413 or 26.4 per cent of the 9029 are female. A record 446,000 people are licence holders; that’s lower than the total of active licences because some people may hold more than one (typically, a badge for monitoring CCTV, and a door badge).
Among other points from the numbers: the mode (most occurring age) of a licence-holder can be said to be 26 or 27 as the number is so nearly the same for each – 15,033 and 15,034 respectively. Some eight people hold SIA licences in their 90s; the oldest is 99. While you have to be aged at least 18 to have an SIA badge, some 1325 people are aged 18; 70 is the age when that total is lower (1125; some 1400 licence-holders are aged 69).
In terms of nationality, the major change in recent years has been a relative rise and large in percentage terms in some foreign nationalities with licences. Compared with February 2023, for instance, the number of British nationality SIA licence holders has actually dropped; from (in round numbers) 256,000 to 241,000 while the number of Pakistani nationals (the most common nationality after British) has doubled, from 31,000 to 64,000. Likewise the number of Nigerian nationality people with SIA badges has doubled in those last couple of years, from 11,400 to 24,900, meaning that Nigerians have gone above Indians as the third most common SIA-badged nationality. The other nations making up the ‘top ten’ are Italy, Ghana, Portugal, Nepal, Sudan and Bangladesh.
London remains where badge-holders are concentrated; London is number one place, then come Manchester and Birmingham; and Slough-Heathrow (west London)O and Luton.
For the monthly numbers (in Excel spreadsheet format) visit https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/sia-licence-holders.
Photo by Mark Rowe: patroller, Reading station, weekday morning last month.
