How can we raise standards further? SIA chairman Baroness Ruth Henig asked those at the second annual Security Industry Authority conference, in Leeds on May 16. Mark Rowe reports.
In a speech that echoed hers at the SIA’s first conference in Leicester a year before, she spoke of the SIA’s journey as a collaborative one, ‘alongside our stake-holders and partners’. She acknowledged ‘difficulties that you are in as a result of our current licensing performance issues. There have been delays in our processing of licensing applications and I am well aware it has been very difficult to get through to our contact centre. We have been working really hard with our service provider. Significant progress has been made but it has not been as rapid as we would have hoped and we apologise for the poor service in recent months and ask you to please bear with us." Baroness Henig pointed to the irony that new IT systems meant to improve service in fact in the short term so often result in a worse system that before: "I am really sorry about that."
She went on to the stake-holder engagement strategy, launched at Leicester last year. She spoke of how it was essential to understand the interests and issues involved, and developing appropriate plans and priorities. She spoke of introducing regulation with the industry, not to the industry, balancing public purpose and commercial implications. "Our commitment to you is that we want and need to know what is important to our stake-holders." That includes, she went on, delivering what Parliament set the SIA up to do – which is not set in stone, and will change with time.
In a wide-ranging speech, she mentioned only in passing the SIA-licensing of security people in Northern Ireland, and of private investigators, and did not set a date for either. She spoke of a review on the approach to licensing of company directors. While she did not mention the BBC1 TV Panorama in January, that documentary did raise the issue of SIA-approved companies with (shadow or otherwise) directors with criminal backgrounds. Baroness Henig spoke of ‘legislative restrictions’ but added that if a change is required, the SIA will identify an ‘appropriate legislative vehicle’.
She summed up: "It is essential we reflect your views and have your full support for our future business and corporate strategies. I hope you will feel we have been listening very hard and have been responding as appropriately as possible to what you, our partners, have been saying to us. Like everybody here I am totally committed to taking forward the SIA and the private security industry by raising standards across the board. There have been many improvements and successes in recent months and I also know there are things the SIA and the industry wants to do better. One thing I believe above all else is that at the core of everything we do should be the mission of safeguarding and protecting the public. Only through working together and trusting each other will we reach the goals of regulating the industry to which we all aspire."
What has the SIA done in the last year? As for the 2012 London Olympics, the authority has contributed to security planning through various committees, and steering groups. "I think we all recognise that the Olympics Games is going to be an opportunity to show the world the professionalism of the industry and in turn to raise the standards of private security at this important event." The SIA has supported efforts to reduce the threat of crime against cash in transit (CIT) guards, and signed up to the Cash and Valuables in Transit crime reduction charter. The SIA has connected with European Union bodies and regulators; and, ‘committed to changing perception’, has had one to one meetings with ‘concerned stake-holders’, ‘to reinforce the message that there is no such thing as respectable offending. And there is a level playing field.’ The phrase level playing field by the way cropped up often during the day.
There is an extranet for exclusive approved contractor (ACS) use, to be available within the next year. The SIA has set up meetings (‘networks’) for sector-specific groups such as door staff and small businesses, to pursue issues that matter to them. In December the SIA ran a ‘think-tank’ about licensing in-house guards: "This year we will lead a broad base study aimed at making recommendations one way or another on in-house guarding licensing issues, by December." And the SIA has consulted with the BSIA and Skills for Security (SfS) to develop a ‘revised licensing framework’. The authority hosted a meeting with training providers and SfS and qualifications bodies, to discuss best practice in investigations malpractice and how to improve managing malpractice to maintain integrity.
The SIA has consulted with police about ways to give updates to whistle-blowers and to improve information on the authority’s website, so that providers of information feel it is worthwhile telling the SIA: "And I am very pleased to report that more people do feel it is worthwhile engaging with us. We now receive over 600 items of information each month and the number is growing. This is a very important area for us. I would like to point out we operate an intelligence-led approach. We welcome all communication either directly to us or through Crimestoppers." She added that the SIA has assessed the feasibility of a website message board, to canvass opinion and provide information.
"This year primarily we want to improve our customer service; we know it has been difficult to contact us over the last few months and [SIA chief executive] Mike Wilson has been writing to the industry regularly to explain customer service problems, what we are doing to relieve them and when customers can expect to see an improvement." The regulator has appointed an interim director of customer relations whose remit is to ‘develop a more robust approach’. On those ‘customer relationship problems’, she suggested a joint helpline, with partners such as the BSIA.
This year the SIA has met with buyers of security services, about the ACS standard. Mentioning regulatory compliance, Baroness Henig said the SIA will continue to work with the Criminal Records Bureau and the UK Border Agency, to ‘implement efficiencies’, where the SIA’s performance depends on theirs. The SIA contributed to the National CCTV strategy [released late in 2007 by the Home Office]; the authority will arrange a network meeting for the public space CCTV and close protection sectors, in the expectation that as with the door staff and wheel clampers’ meetings, they will come to run themselves. The TGWU and Unite unions, representing some guards and clampers, have asked to be involved in stake-holder meetings.
