Volunteering at an event
Published 17 October 2022
© Crown copyright 2022
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/volunteering-at-an-event/volunteering-at-an-event
1. Request
I wanted some some guidance on an event we have been asked to carry out security for. The event organisers are saying they’ve been in touch with various people and there is no need for security so I wanted to confirm this with you.
Event is a ticketed event between 3,000 and 4,000 people. It involves us in carrying out bag searches and people searching, patrolling the premises and guarding the entrances, stopping alcohol and people without tickets. Would SIA badge holders be required for this?
Secondly if there was no SIA licensed people at the event can the volunteers still carry out the same duties or is it a legal requirement to have SIA badge holders there to carry out the above duties?
2. Response
The Freedom of Information Act gives a right of access to recorded information held by public authorities. We are not required to create new information to respond to a request, or give a judgement or opinion that is not already recorded.
The first limb of your request is seeking a judgement to be formed in respect of a set of circumstances where full details have not been provided. You may find the Events guidance for suppliers of security of assistance in helping you to ascertain whether an SIA licence is required. Page 5 sets out the circumstances in which a licence is required and page 6 considers when you do not need a licence. Page 7 goes on to consider the activities that are licensable and page 8 considers the activities that are not licensable.
The second limb of your request is seeking information on whether volunteers can carry out bag searches, people searches, patrolling the premises and guarding the entrances or whether it is a legal requirement to have an SIA licence to carry out these tasks. Volunteers, by virtue of not being employed or contracted in are not considered to be employees. Therefore they are not licensable under the Private Security Industry Act 2001 (unless in relation to the vehicle immobilising). Further details can be found at pages 12 -13 of the Events guidance for suppliers of security.
If you have concerns about a security operative or company, please report them through our Report a Crime or Concern page. Your report will then be passed to our Intelligence team. The information you provide is important to us, but we will not be able to feed back to you on how we use this or the actions we take.
[Reference: FOI 0358]