The latest, September monthly statistics from the Security Industry Authority show the continuing boom in applications for SIA badges, and numbers of SIA-licenced people.
Some 439,675 people hold SIA licences, a slight fall back from the record of the month before above 440,000. Of them 48,241 or 10.97 per cent are female, meaning that the percentage of females is going up, but only very gradually past ten per cent.
Repeat applications usually outnumber first timers – though not always; and sometimes not by many. For instance, in August, 7147 first-timers compared with 8882 repeats. The totals of first-timers and repeat applications for the first eight months of the year show some interesting differences. For January to August 2024, repeat applications outnumbered first-timers, 71,513 to 65,184; whereas slightly more first-timers applied in the first eight months of 2023, 58,710 to 58,213. The difference in the first eight months of 2022 was more clear: 55,245 repeat applications compared with 45,741 first timers.
While those totals for the first eight months of this year and the previous two all show rises, the rise in first-timers is more marked; a rise of 42.5 per cent between 2022, and this year. That compares with a rise in repeats of 29.4 per cent in the two years.
The totals for 2021 and 2020 are less worth comparing because in 2020 first time applica-tions dipped sharply in the spring, under 2000 a month, presumably due to the first covid pandemic lockdown; and in spring and summer 2021 repeat applications regularly topped 10,000, presumably because those who have had licences since the regime began, first for door staff, in the mid-2000s were renewing.
The mode (most occurring) age of the SIA licence holder is 27. The age cohorts that each have more than 10,000 licence holders span from 22 to 39. The SIA licensable work appears not for the youngest, as only 1201 19-year-olds are badged, compared with 1367 69-year-olds and 1127 70-year-olds. The very oldest with SIA badges are six people in their 90s (the oldest now 99).
As for applications, by month May 2024 saw the most licences granted in a month – 19,427, a handful ahead of the total granted in September 2021. Typically a relative handful are not granted; for example in August, some 15,018 applications were granted, compared with 296 where the SIA replied that it was ‘minded to refuse’, 243 refused outright, and 88 withdrawn (for whatever reason).
As of last month, the UK had some 762 SIA-approved contractors, somewhat down from total that was once 800-plus.
As for nationality of those with licences, as featured previously in Professional Security Magazine, the last couple of years have seen sharp rises in licence holders who are from Pakistan, India and Nigeria and (in percentage terms) Bangladesh. Of the ‘top ten’ nationali-ties, including native British, the only one that saw a (slight) rise in numbers last month was Ghanaian, in seventh. The ‘top ten’ are, in order, British, Pakistani, Indian, Nigerian, Italian, Portuguese, Ghanaian, Nepalese, Sudanese and Spanish. For the monthly figures on number of SIA approved contractors, licence holders and applications, visit the SIA website.
Photo by Mark Rowe; mural in Weston super Mare town centre of SIA-badged officer (with badge characteristically on arm) alongside public servants.
