The new regime will shift responsibility for the standards and behavior of security staff from the SIA to an estimated 4,200 businesses operating in Britain.
This will leave the regulator with the task of targeting companies or employees that fail to meet the required standards with a range of penalties from banning a company from the industry to criminal prosecution. Companies rather than the regulator will in future be responsible for carrying out checks on individual security staff.
Wow, this would be a radical change for the SIA if it goes through and I would be very interested in seeing the response from private industry about this move. I am sure there are a ton of questions on how this new regulatory regime will work. (see impact assessment below)
For that reason, I will hold off on any commentary on this one and wait for this stuff to be hashed out. I am not a UK citizen and I am by no means an expert on the SIA or that particular industry. If any readers have an inside track on this, feel free to comment below.
If you are a UK citizen, there is a discussion about this new regulatory regime at the Home Office here. Here is a copy of the regime and impact assessment below. Check it out. –Matt
Future regulatory regime for the private security industry (PDF file – 213kb)
Impact assessment PSI future regulatory regime (PDF file – 393kb)
Private security companies to be self-regulated
Ministers want security companies to regulate their own staff and the industry’s watchdog to move into the private sector
By Alan Travis
Tuesday 20 November 2012
The statutory licensing of more than 330,000 individual private security workers is to be scrapped under a shakeup of the regulation of the industry proposed by Home Office ministers.
They are instead proposing that private security companies regulate their own staff, with the industry’s watchdog, the Security Industry Authority, moved into the private sector.
Ministers say the phased move to a “business regulation regime” reflects the “maturity of the private security industry” and supports its willingness to take on further responsibility and be more accountable for its actions.
The new regime will shift responsibility for the standards and behavior of security staff from the SIA to an estimated 4,200 businesses operating in Britain.