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Against a backdrop of ‘high unexpected application volumes’, Security Industry Authority (SIA) CEO Michelle Russell and chair Heather Baily in a foreword to the SIA’s accounts hailed ‘a year of strong delivery across all our private security regulatory functions’. They noted also the important strategic change for the SIA that the Authority is to be the new regulator of Martyn’s Law, under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. On Martyn’s Law, the documents said that once funding (for setting up the regulation and inspection regime) is agreed (with the Home Office), an SIA set-up team will be created.
Record
As for the SIA seeing a record numbers of applications and passing the half a million mark of registered licences, reaching 507,000 in March, the document put that down to ‘a high number of renewal applications incentivised by changes to the training regime, as well as higher-than-usual numbers of first-time applicants’. That refers to the ‘mandatory public safety critical refresher training’, such as physical intervention and searching, ‘for Door Supervisor and Security Guard licences’, the main two badges applied for. March 2025 was the Authority’s second busiest month on record, with 19,010 paid applications (put down to ‘a spike in student visa holders applying for licences’), and April 2024 was the third busiest ever.
Badges in numbers
The SIA in 2024-25 processed 93.3 per cent of all licence applications within 25 working days of receiving a correct and complete application; slightly higher than previous years, ‘despite the significantly larger volume of licence applications’. In 2024-25 the SIA suspended 1,528 licences and revoked 7,343 licences; near all, more than 95 per cent of the decisions to revoke a licence were due to the licence holder no longer having the right to work in the UK. The document described these actions as ‘fast-paced, resource-intensive’ and often requiring ‘multiple engagements with the licence holder and police partners’.
Inspections
The SIA’s inspectors carried out checks on 7,054 individuals deployed by 1,033 security providers at 1,147 sites and venues. As for where the regulator is inspecting, the document pointed to ‘festivals, large outdoor events and venues with large footfall as being an area of risk’; due to potential for ‘principal contractors having to adopt multilayered and extended supply chains to meet resource demands. These can result in exploitation, unlicensed operatives being deployed, and abuse of employment status and cash-in-hand payments to circumvent tax and revenue legal obligations.’ As for stewards at sports grounds, which are inspected by the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA), the document says the SIA and SGSA have produced ‘mapping that will allow qualified stewards the potential to fast-track the Door Supervision training requirement. We hope this will provide a useful saving both for businesses and for individuals who wish to work in sectors with some shared skillsets.’
Finances
The SIA ran an operating deficit of £1.3m, compared with £0.7m the year before. Its spending for the year was £38.4m. Most, £34.8m, of its income comes from licence fees, while £2.3m comes from firms applying for the voluntary approved contractor scheme (ACS). As for the Authority’s costs, much (£21m) goes on paying for staff, and £10m on the cost of the licensing regime.
About the SIA
The Authority employs nearly 400 members of staff, a doubling in recent years; the regulator pointed to a more than doubling of its ‘risk-led inspection activity’ (from 2,100 to 4,487); and a 5.8 per cent rise in joint operations with partners (such as the police, and HM Revenue & Customs). The SIA has an office in Canary Wharf, London Docklands, ‘but a significant number of our workforce are based locally across the UK as investigators and other remote staff’, the document added. Visit https://www.gov.uk/sia.
Photo by Mark Rowe.
