Now landing on desks is the May 2023 print edition of Professional Security Magazine, your number one and only source of news and views about the private security industry in the British Isles.
Pictured are the Roman Baths, in the spa town of Bath (that’s Bath Abbey in the left background). We had an afternoon’s walk around in the company of Paul Howe, whose ACS Pacesetters guarding firm Venture Security has the guard contract. We not only saw what has drawn visitors to the place of the calibre of Jane Austen for centuries, but how the security officers slot in alongside customer service staff, and besides have an outfacing role, helping to protect the bustling centre. It’s a theme we’ve kept returning to in recent years, how uniformed and SIA-badged private security officers are a visible, everyday presence on high streets and in public space.
Part of the reason for that, is that they are needed, whether the threat comes from terrorism, or more routinely, but still with impact emotionally and financially, from theft and anti-social and violent behaviour. We bring you what stern words Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had to say recently about ASB – and how theatres are the latest workplace to report bad behaviour and nuisance, that has always been around, yet has got more prevalent, and with more extremes, since the covid pandemic.
Public space protection orders (PSPOs) have been around for several years, to give targeted powers (to ‘authorised’ persons who may include hired private security) where there’s a nuisance, such as littering, dog fouling, aggressive begging or drug misuse. If councils are making PSPOs to cover their entire geographical area, as some are, are PSPOs losing their point, and in effect becoming unenforceable? we ask.
We also report fully on the Fraud Advisory Panel conference, that we reflected showed one thing at least – for the counter-fraud practitioners, such as lawyers and investigators, there’s no shortage of work. And how stewarding of Scottish football is different from the English and Welsh equivalent, after we enjoyed a home game at Hibernian FC.
We also pause and take a longer perspective on the UK regulator, the Security Industry Authority, as the SIA turned 20 in April, as its launch conference was in London in April 2003. Much has changed since in the security sector and in the country generally – how does the SIA stand, and what may happen in the foreseeable future – if there is such a thing for how the sector is badged and regulated, given that the Protect Duty may well become law, next year? We also bring you the latest developments on the Duty.
Plus all the regulars, such as Magazine MD Roy Cooper’s gossip page, and four pages of ‘spending the budget’ and four pages of new products and services. Plus a preview of IFSEC 2023, the 50th anniversary of the security show, at London Excel in Docklands from May 16 to 18.
Want to read more? You can digitally read the latest edition and past ones at the ‘magazine‘ section of the website. If you’d like to subscribe, email your postal address to [email protected].
