The Security Industry Authority could issue its first licences for security industry staff next year, according to a senior civil servant.
The Security Industry Authority could issue its first licences for security industry staff next year, a senior civil servant told an IFSEC audience. Graham Titcombe of the Home Office told a BSIA seminar on May 15: ?We need to see the first licences issued in 2003. 2003 is a key date for our ministers. So we have a lot to do. It?s all a bit theoretical at the moment.? He was referring to the SIA, presently in embryo with only the most senior staff – Chief Executive John Saunders and chairman Molly Meacher – appointed. To make the Private Security Industry Act 2001 more than a piece of paper, the SIA has what Mr Titcombe called a ?complex programme of seven inter-dependent project streams to make things happen in 2003?.
Seven streams
Those seven streams are: policy and legislation; organisational design and staffing; infrastructure and set-up (that is, where to be based); finance systems; business process definitions (that is, whether licence-seekers should apply via a call centre, say, or over the internet); IT strategy; and marketing. The SIA, building itself from scratch, has to face issues varying from a corporate identity and website to appointing members to the SIA board. All this needs the approval of ministers, Mr Titcombe added, and secondary legislation will be required (as was stated when the PSIA went through last May). He added: ?The cock-up potential is enormous.?
Marketing money
Earlier, Mr Ticombe reviewed the planned workings of the SIA, adding: ?We are going to need to spend a lot of money on communicating and marketing the SIA.? For example, the government would put out publicity to those thinking of employing a security firm, namely: ?if the firm is not licenced by the SIA, you may like to ask: why not?? Describing wheel-clampers and door supervisers as key sectors for the SIA, Mr Titcombe said that a criminal record check may or may not be the whole story for giving or denying a licence. Rather, what he called a ?threshold of seriousness? needs to be established. A decision would also depend on local police intelligence, and how relevant a caution or conviction was to the licenced job, adding that a clean record could not be expected given the prevalence of criminal convictions among young men. As for enforcement powers, the SIA would need to go into workplaces, such as nightclubs – but not what Mr Titcombe called a ?jackboot in the door at 3am? approach. Such inspections would probably be resulting from intelligence, as there would not be enough resources to visit every nightclub every night, or every workplace every year. Inspectors would have the power to demand to see licence documentation.
