In February 2016 Una Riley as our USA correspondent interviewed Don Erickson, pictured, the CEO of the SIA (Security Industry Association), the private security trade association in the USA. They are living up to their vision statement to be ‘the world’s leading association for security solutions’ and their mission is to be a ‘catalyst for success within the global security industry through information, insight and influence’.
In the UK, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) is seeking a closer relationship between the UK and US security markets in preparation for post-Brexit trade deals. That is the key focus of renewed talks between the BSIA and its American equivalent, the SIA.
When I spoke with Don Erickson last year it became obvious that there were a lot of comparisons between the SIA (not to be confused with the Security Industry Authority, the UK regulator) and our own BSIA (British Security Industry Association). While the BSIA are considered the premier trade association in this country the SIA also have the same reputation as the leading security trade association in the USA. As this magazine’s USA correspondent, all things Anglo-American are of great interest to me. I asked James Kelly, CEO, BSIA to explain about this new relationship.
He said: “The United Kingdom and the United States of America share a bond like no other between any nations anywhere in the world. We share a history, culture, and language, with stronger ties to one another than to any other nation respectively. The bonds of kinship between our two nations are as strong today as they were during the darkest days of the Second World War and will undoubtedly grow even stronger as we walk shoulder-to-shoulder over the next few years. Following the monumental political developments in both the UK and the USA within the last 12 months there have been calls from Whitehall to Washington to thrust fresh vigour into the ‘special relationship’ and there has been support from both the White House and Downing Street to enact a new trade agreement between our two nations once the UK has left the EU. Both the UK and the USA are the largest sources of foreign direct investment in one another’s countries with this showing no signs of slowing.
“It is an exciting time for the United Kingdom to throw open the doors to wider international trade to our closest ally and biggest individual trading partner. Earlier this year the BSIA’s Public Affairs Executive attended a summit in Washington with representatives from the BSIA’s US counterpart, the Security Industry Association, to learn more about the US security industry and to make representation to key congressmen about the UK security industry. Leading on from the Washington Summit, I am delighted to be welcoming colleagues from the Security Industry Association to London this summer. Chief Executive Don Erickson and Director of Government Relations Jake Parker will be visiting the UK to learn more about the fantastic and dynamic work of the UK security industry, meet with key decision makers and to really see the best that Britain has to offer. The future for the UK and USA security industries is looking bright and I look forward to working with the United States over the coming years. It is true that the UK and the USA have a lot in common from a trade perspective, especially in the electronic sector. There has always been a union with the USA, from the recognised US manufacturers and installation companies that formed the electronics market as we know it today. From the start of the digital CCTV digital age with the introduction of dome cameras by companies such as American Dynamics, Pelco, Tyco to ADT – well-known brands that were widely used as part of many of the UK’s day to day security installation designs. Those formative brands have now been joined more recently by many other well-known names in the intruder, access, and CCTV sectors.
The SIA represents about 650 companies across the United States. Just like the BSIA the SIA engages with the US government. The SIA lobbies both Houses of Congress on Capitol Hill while providing members with industry research, developing standards and advancing industry professionalism through the provision of training opportunities. I had spoken to Don Erickson about the synergies between the USA and its counterparts here in the UK last year but at a private summit in Washington DC on Friday, March 17, the BSIA’s Public Affairs Executive, Felix Parker-Smith, met with SIA counterparts to discuss collaborations between the two organisations and explore opportunities for closer collaboration. This will be explored further on a return visit planned for later this summer.
A delegation from the SIA is to visit the BSIA in London, and Don Erickson is scheduled to speak at the BSIA’s annual luncheon on July 12. In my opinion the BSIA are providing its members with a future-proof liaison mechanism both from a European and a world trading perspective.
For the European perspective, I turned to David Wilkinson, Director of Technical Services of the BSIA and an EC member of the European industry body Euralarm. Wilkinson is responsible for coordinating all technical and quality matters within the BSIA. These duties include acting as representative on various UK, European and International standards committees and acting as UK representative on various Cenelec and Euralarm committees monitoring EU Directives that impact BSIA members. Dave is the industry lead for the UK’s Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers Community (RISC). He is also responsible for membership liaison within the BSIA’s technical sections and works with other industry organisations such as ABI, NPCC, Police Scotland, the Security Camera Commissioner, and inspectorates on technical and any other issues that may affect BSIA members. I turned to him for his take on what was happening on behalf of the BSIA member interests at Euralarm level regarding Brexit.
Wilkinson began: “Being an industry that works to standards, this has by no means been easy, quite the contrary; we witnessed the move away from British to European standards some 17 years ago. Whilst at that time this split opinion on whether it was the right approach to take, it was none the less accepted and in true British style we rolled our sleeves up and got on with it. Expectation at that time was that we would see a gradual change from the remaining British standards to those of European origin over the following few years; though we are still transitioning 13 years on, albeit, there remains but a few of those old favourites from BS:4737 and of course our scheme enablement document PD6662!”
We talked at length about the harmonised standards that had been promised initially. The UK was not going to adopt the new EU standard back in the day until the entire EN:50131-1-13 had been completed … however, it was passed at technical committee level (with Brits on the team) and the best we could do after that was to delay the standard for one year … the rest is now history!
Wilkinson continued: “The BSIA recognised the need to influence the European standards and regulatory framework early on and so called on its members to participate in their development and direction. Experts from both SME and larger corporate companies rose to that challenge and even today, the UK has a contingent of over 30 participants working hard to deliver the UK view on alarm systems across the manufacturing, installing and monitoring sectors. In fact, we continue to hold the lead role in several key working group areas. The BSIA also recognised the need of reaching out to the European Commission and other leading European organisations to ‘complete the European picture’ so BSIA became a member of Euralarm (the European trade association of trade associations) as a further channel of influence, to ensure the views of its members could be heard at a more strategic level. Today, BSIA holds several key positions in Euralarm and remains a lead contributor to the work of the organisation.”
I can attest to that. Having represented the BSIA on Euralarm for almost a decade, firstly as a member then becoming Chairman of SC1 and later as an Executive Council member, I have a long history with both organisations. We had many issues affecting the UK industry then, from the European Work Directive to the Belgian Model as well as grappling with the harmonised standards … all were important challenges that would have adversely affected our industry had they been introduced. Talking to Wilkinson some of the same topics are still being dealt with. He said: “Although the European ‘alarm systems’ standards framework calls on the need to have a competent and qualified workforce, it doesn’t make any suggestion on how that should be achieved, so traditionally the UK has done this through other mechanisms, such as apprenticeships, the use of National Occupational Standards (NOS), national qualifications and a plethora of industry training courses. Fortunately, through some industry stalwarts and the good work of its trade associations, there has been recognition in the need to invest in its most precious commodity, our work force. On the back of the Government’s new Trailblazer and Apprenticeship Levy the industry is working hard to encourage a new breed of apprentice, whilst continuing to up-skill existing personnel to embrace the technological evolution.”
I asked how this all fits with the current ‘exit’ strategy from Europe. He replied: “Far short of being able to answer that with any great certainty, I can say that as an industry, we have a healthy standards framework in place that can continue to be developed and used as well as a close relationship with the British Standards Institute that equally recognises the challenges that exiting Europe may bring. I should state at this point that both BSIA and BSI share a common ‘current’ view that it is business as usual for now until the full extent of new trade agreements is realised. The Great Repeal Bill is expected to include the transition of regulation from Europe into UK law.”
Wilkinson went on to explain that we should not be confused with alarm system standards, as most of these are voluntary and not subject to the Bill. He continued: “Subjects such as WEEE, RoHS RE-D etc. will still apply to us.” I asked if Euralam membership is now a waste of time for as the UK security industry. Wilkinson replied: “Euralarm continues to be a key strategic partner to our influence in Europe and is likely to remain the case, as exiting the EU doesn’t impact on our membership of the trade body.”
I mentioned to Wilkinson that when I was with Euralarm we used to have General Assemblies each year…now I understand the term is Euralarm Symposium. I asked about this year’s symposium. Wilkinson replied: “Euralarm comes to London, May 8, and the BSIA and FIA [Fire Industry Association] are the hosts. The two topics for discussion being industry competence and qualification (recognising the newly published EN:16763 Services standard) and harnessing the potential of the digital market (remote support for alarm systems). Interestingly, whilst Europe is the focal point for all things standard in the alarm sector, many don’t know that most of the European standards are also published at an international level but are not necessarily used; the main exception to this being the BS EN 62676 CCTV standards, so it is viable to consider their future use as our global relationship with the international standards body is again not affected by exiting the EU! Our influence to protect our industry may lie closer to home or remain a hybrid combination, but whatever the case, then BSIA will position itself accordingly to take a leading role in this, working on behalf of all our members.”
