Complaints to the SIA about the use of force by security operatives
Published 2 June 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-to-the-sia-on-the-use-of-force-by-security-operatives/complaints-to-the-sia-about-the-use-of-force-by-security-operatives
1. Request
Please tell me:
- the number of complaints made to the SIA during the years 2016 to 2021
- how many of each yearly total related to the use of force/excessive use of force
- how many complaints were upheld
2. Response
I confirm that the SIA holds part of the information you have requested and it can be found below with an explanation of the information that we do not hold.
I have set out below the number of complaints made to the SIA in the financial years 2016/17 to 2020/2021.
| Year | Number of complaints |
|---|---|
| April 2020 – March 2021 | 309 |
| April 2019 – March 2020 | 429 |
| April 2018 – March 2019 | 669 |
| April 2017 – March 2018 | 1,427 |
| April 2016 – March 2017 | 1,166 |
The SIA complaints procedure relates solely to complaints about the SIA – anything that the SIA has done wrong or has failed to do. We do not have a complaints procedure about security staff or businesses.
Complaints about security staff may be made directly to a venue or a security business.
Concerns about people working in the security industry can be reported to the SIA and are treated as intelligence about a crime or concern. Intelligence is not specifically recorded or categorised by reference to the use of force or excessive use of force so I am not able to provide a breakdown of the number of intelligence reports relating to this category. Intelligence logs may be categorised by violence but this covers a number of situations such as violence by security, violence against security, individuals with a history of violence and violent incidents where security were involved. It is not possible to identify which of these logs related to the use of force or excessive use of force.
[Reference: FOI 0244]