The Security Industry Authority (SIA) that will regulate the security industry over the next few years has its chairman in place: Molly Meacher (pictured). She talks to Mark Rowe about the task ahead.
Molly Meacher
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Economics background, long and wide experience in public policy. In the 1980s, director of an unemployment policy unit. Work also in the mental health field – member of the Mental Health Act Commission. In Russia as adviser to the Minister of Employment. For the last three years, acting and deputy chair of the Police Complaints Authority. Played a part in new Police Complaints System, within the Police Reform Bill.
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Molly Meacher, new chair of the Security Industry Authority, admitted early in the interview: ‘It’s a big job.’ After an hour in Mrs Meacher’s company I can report that she is a self-effacing smart cookie who will make the SIA happen. She spoke very deliberately and from notes on an A4 pad – as well she might, for a careless word could mislead thousands of security managers, embarrass government ministers, or give a hostage to fortune years down the line. She was speaking in an office on the first floor of Clive House in Petty France in central London, the SIA’s temporary home, on that rainy day after the jubilee. (An open drying umbrella sat on the floor near a desk.) This is early days for the SIA. This government agency will affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people – despite its name, and the years of lobbying for industry regulation, the SIA will first regulate wheel-clampers and door supervisers, who are arguably not as central to the security industry as security guards, private investigators and consultants, whose turn to be licenced will not come up for two or three years. A job like Molly Meacher’s does not crop up every day – nor does it finish in a day. She has to build a bureaucratic body that will run smoothly and promptly, and yet she has to have the spark of inspiration to create that organisation – everything from staff to premises to ethos and website. (Graham Titcombe, a senior Home Office civil servant, told a BSIA seminar at IFSEC how the embryo of the SIA is working towards ‘making things happen’ in 2003, as reported last issue.) She is alive to the rarity of her new job: ‘It is an extraordinary privilege to create a government agency from scratch. We come into the SIA with no-one’s baggage. There are no staff. There’s the chief executive [John Saunders] and myself, and we will be appointing staff throughout the year to reach our total of some 90 people. We also have to tender for multi-million pound IT systems.’
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Why this job?
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So why did she want this job’ ‘Having worked very closely with the police for eight years [her previous job was Deputy Chair of the Police Complaints Authority] I am acutely conscious of the shortage of police officers and the vast need for more personnel to provide greater security for members of the public and for industry. It seems to me that the private security industry has a phenomenal opportunity at this point in time to increase its contribution and to supplement the work of the police service in exciting new ways.’ She mentioned also the Police Reform Bill that paves the way for accredited officers, possibly provided by the private security industry, to carry out patrols; and the contracting out of such services as prison escorting. ‘It’s an exciting opportunity for me to play a role in the transformation of the private security industry.’ Once or twice I asked: what did she think of it so far’ She said she found the industry more diverse and complex than she had imagined: ‘There are far more high-tech and graduate occupations within the private security industry than generally recognised.’ She praised the security industry for its response to her so far: ‘Everyone seems to want regulation and to help the SIA make it work. People are immensely positive and helpful. So that makes the job a lot of fun where it could have been fairly depressing.’
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The new-comer
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She is a new-comer to the security industry, and the Home Office only announced the appointment on March 15. To ask specific questions was unfair (not that it stopped me) because she simply does not have the answers yet. For example, the SIA does not have permanent premises yet; where will its headquarters be – London’ She replied: ‘Our inspectors will be spread across the country. The criminal checks will be undertaken by the Criminal Records Bureau in Liverpool. We will probably have a call centre somewhere outside London. In connection with all our own operations as well as stakeholders spread across the country, parliamentarians and the Home Office, it would be very helpful to have our small head office in London, but this has yet to be decided by the Home Office.’
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Government agenda
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Some specifics she could announce: ‘The SIA will be responding to the Government’s agenda and therefore the first groups of people to be licenced will be door supervisers and wheel clampers.’ Those two sectors will begin licencing in autumn 2003, followed by manned guarding in autumn 2004, and security consultants and private investigators in late 2005. ‘We will be introducing a criminal criterion in line with the police service criminal standard for police officers. Any applicant for a licence who has a record of a serious arrestable offence will automatically be barred from receiving a licence. Those with a criminal record of what might be termed middle level offences will be barred unless there are compelling mitigating circumstances. Minor offences on the other hand will be taken into account when considering whether or not to grant a licence but may well not be prohibitive.’ Could she give examples’ ‘Well, the serious arrestable offence would include murder and manslaughter, for example.’ Middle level: assault causing actual bodily harm, or indecency; minor offences, minor drugs offences.
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Consulting stakeholders
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‘The SIA will also be introducing competency criteria for licencing and will be consulting with key stakeholders to establish reasonable competency levels for each sector. Our concern will be to raise standards over time, but not to disqualify large tranches of the industry through the setting of excessively high competency criteria.’ She gave the example of door supervisers who might be required to have training in communication skills, conflict resolution, and maybe first aid. ‘We appreciate that wheel clampers will not have experienced licencing and in many parts of the country local authorities have not organised licencing systems for door supervisers. The provision of training may present problems in at least some areas. In order to ensure that during the transition period the industry can continue functioning, the SIA is planning to introduce provisional licences for those who satisfy the criminal criteria but may not have located adequate training by day one. Full licences will be available from day one for those who satisfy both the criminal and competency criteria.’
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Chairing the board
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One of her roles will be chairing the SIA board. ‘It had been anticipated that he SIA board would comprise key stakeholders from the industry. It is now clear that board members will have a significant adjudication role in addition to their responsibilities for corporate governance and policy development. The Private Security Industry Act provides for appeals against the authority’s decisions on licencing and approved employer status. The formal appeals will be heard by magistrates courts but first-level appeals will be considered by SIA board members. Another important role for board members will be the handling of any judicial reviews of SIA decisions. Board members will therefore be appointed through a public advertisement and selection process on the basis of their skills and experience in relation to the requirements of the job. Ultimately ministers will approve the appointment of all board members.’ The board, both part-timers and full-timers, should number eight (including Molly Meacher) with the first members in place in time for the SIA launch on April 1, 2003. The board will also have a representative from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). ‘The SIA will establish an advisory panel of key stakeholders to ensure that the SIA board is at all times full informed of stakeholders’ opinion on policy matters.’ How will that advisory group work – will it report to her’ She envisages chairing the board and the advisory panel: ‘Key issues would be put to the advisory group before being presented to the board for decision. The advisory group could then submit their views and recommendations along with a policy paper.’ An example of such a policy requiring a decision would be training criteria in a sector being licenced. ‘We will be running a large-scale direct mailing to purchasers and providers of security services to inform everyone about the licencing scheme, the company approval scheme [a kitemark-style scheme] and both the criminal and competency criteria as soon as these are established. We realise that it will be extremely difficult to reach small organisations or one man bands. We will also be advertising widely in industry magazines and association publications and will appear at exhibitions and conferences throughout the next 18 months in the run-up to licencing.’
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Benefit to everyone
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Yes, regulation will involve a cost, but Molly Meacher believes that the SIA will benefit everyone. The Government and public want to see crime and the fear of crime reduced; ’employers will benefit from higher-quality staff, improved retention of staff and better relations with the public and the police; security operatives will benefit from training and gain transferable skills’. And the SIA will attend to widespread public distrust of door supervisers and wheel clampers: ‘The SIA comes into existence at a time when the security industry has a very poor reputation.’
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Inspectors, enforcing
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More specifics: what about inspectors’ How will they enforce regulation, given that reputable companies will comply with the SIA while the ‘cowboys’ will hardly be queueing up for licences’ ‘SIA inspectors will only work through very close working relations with local authorities and the police service. We will depend very substantially upon intelligence coming into us about unlicenced operators or directors. We anticipate that the help will be forthcoming to enable us to run a really effective inspectoral system. I think people will actually want to help.’ Will those inspectors be SIA employees’ ‘For some part of the industry it will be possible to work through existing inspectorates. Information from the regions will be vitally important to the SIA and we will therefore have our own inspectors irrespective of the role of already existing organisations.’
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OK, while it might be unfair to expect the SIA to have fixed specifics before the authority even exists, what would Molly Meacher hope to have set up, if she were to be interviewed in 2005′ She says without hesitation: ‘We would hope to have a slick licencing system turning around licence applications within agreed target time frames. A well-respected approved employer scheme in which the vast majority of employers participate; well-established training standards in several key sectors which would have raised standards significantly in those sectors; and evidence of reduced crime both within the security industry and in areas policed by the security industry.’ And another unspecific question: what actually is her job’ ‘My job entails being in contact with very large numbers of people including European regulatory authorities, local authorities, British stakeholders, government officials, ministers, and parliamentarians and MPs. Also contributing to policy discussions and decisions affecting the development of the SIA and its future functioning; reading vast amounts, constantly learning about the industry.’ She played a straight bat to a couple of late attempted googlies. First, what of the Criminal Records Bureau’ While Professional Security reported in March a damning HM Inspectorate of Constabulary report about backlogs and inaccuracy of data into the Police National Computer (which the CRB works from mainly), last month Professional Security reported security recruitment agencies are satisfied with the CRB service so far. Molly Meacher replied: ‘I think we are the wrong people to ask about the CRB. We are trying to establish our own organisation; we are not in a position to comment on others.’ (Professional Security has sent a copy of the article to the CRB which has not replied.) And what of Scotland, where its parliament is working towards its own security industry regulation’ (In November 2001 we reported how the Scottish Executive may bring in a mix of regulation through local authorities and a Scottish Private Security Industry Authority.) Molly Meacher replied that the SIA has a job to do for England and Wales; Scotland, then, is ploughing its own furrow.
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Conclusion
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To recap, Molly Meacher will put her stamp on the embryonic SIA. And what is that stamp likely to be’ A pragmatic attention to the task in hand, and a pragmatic appreciation of the size of the task in hand. There will, incidentally, probably be a general election before the SIA brings on stream licences for all sectors. So it remains to be seen if the Government, of whatever colour, will give the SIA the resources to do its job.
