FOI release

Number of people and companies in breach of SIA regulation

Published 16 September 2025

Request

How many individuals have been found to be:

• working illegally with no right to work?
• suspected of receiving a licence as a result of attending a course where training malpractice may have taken place?
• in possession of a fake or forged or stolen licence?
• not displaying their SIA licence correctly?
• inadequate in their ability to communicate in English?
• receiving cash in hand?

How many companies were found to be:

• in violation of ACS rules?
• supplying unlicensed operatives?
• in breach of ACS rules with regards to sub-contractors and those contractors sub-contracting work 2 or 3 times?

How many companies are presently under investigation?

Response

The SIA holds the information that you have requested. I can confirm that this part of the email will constitute a refusal to deal with your request for the following questions:

• How many individuals have been found to be:
  • working illegally with no right to work?
  • suspected of receiving a licence as a result of attending a course where training malpractice may have taken place?
  • receiving cash in hand?
• How many companies were found to be:
  • in breach of ACS rules with regards to sub-contractors and those contractors sub-contracting work 2 or 3 times?

I explain the reasons for this refusal below.

Exceeding the appropriate cost limit

Section 12(1) – (4) of the Freedom of Information Act allows a public authority to refuse to deal with a request where it estimates that it would exceed the appropriate limit to comply with the request in its entirety or to confirm or deny whether the requested information is held. In the case of a public authority such as the SIA, the appropriate cost limit is £450.

The ICO guidance, ‘The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004’ sets out how a public authority should estimate whether the work required to obtain information is reasonable and appropriate. In the case of requests that would require work on the part of public authority staff, this is estimated at a rate of £25 per person per hour. This means that 18 hours is considered the appropriate limit.

The SIA needs to interrogate its systems to manually extract the information requested. This means that information cannot be instantly isolated and retrieved for the purposes of providing reliable and readily available information.

The work involved to interrogate and extract the information requested would significantly exceed the appropriate cost limit.

What information can we provide?

The SIA can provide the following information for the period 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025.

Training malpractice

While the SIA has provided a refusal to deal with this question in your request as it would exceed the appropriate cost limit, we are able to confirm that there were 4 criminal investigations which were either commenced or concluded during the period 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025.

The SIA is responsible for setting or approving standards of training and this is done by creating and publishing Specifications for Learning and Qualifications. These specifications are used by awarding organisations such as BIIAB, Highfield Qualifications, Pearson BTEC, Qualifications Network, SFJ Awards, and Trident Awards to offer assessment and quality assurance for nationally recognised qualifications.

These awarding organisations must be approved by the SIA and the relevant qualifications regulator (in England the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator, OfQual). The training is delivered by training providers who are in turn approved and audited by one or more awarding organisations.

The SIA is the statutory regulator for the private security industry. It does not regulate qualifications or training delivery. This falls within the scope of qualifications regulators.

Where the SIA receives information that suspected malpractice is taking place at a training provider, the SIA will work with an awarding organisation to investigate it. Where malpractice is confirmed, the awarding organisation will apply an appropriate sanction.

Learners who have completed a course with a training provider where malpractice is confirmed may have their SIA licence revoked depending on the specific circumstances and the nature of the malpractice confirmed. Where a licence is revoked, the individual must satisfy the SIA that they have undertaken further training to demonstrate that they meet the criteria to qualify for an SIA licence which includes that an individual must have the appropriate, SIA recognised, licence-linked qualification before applying for a licence.

Fake, forged or stolen licences

There have been 5 individuals which have been found with suspected forged or counterfeit licence between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025. The SIA relies upon partner agencies to inform us where they have seized or recovered an SIA licence.

Not displaying the licence

Between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025, 27 security operatives were issued with a written warning for failure to comply a condition of their licence, namely, to wear their SIA licence where it can be seen at all times when engaging in designated licensable activity.

No prosecutions were commenced during this timeframe.

It is a condition of a front line licence that the licence holder wears the licence where the front can be seen at all times when engaging in designated licensable activity - unless it has been reported lost or stolen, or it is in the SIA’s possession.

The exceptions to this are if you can demonstrate that the nature of that conduct on that occasion requires that you should not be immediately identifiable as someone engaging in such conduct. On such occasions you must carry your licence on you and be able to produce it on request. This allows store detectives or close protection operatives to perform licensable activities without the need to be identifiable. This cannot apply to vehicle immobilisers.

It is an offence to contravene a licence condition (section 9(4) Private Security Industry Act 2001) PSIA.

The SIA conducts joint enforcement inspections with partner agencies such as the police, local authorities and other government agencies. The SIA may lead or assist in operations led by partner agencies.

Where security operatives who are not displaying their SIA licence correctly are encountered during inspections, the SIA will encourage compliance through advice in the first instance. This has proved to be the most effective way to bring security operatives into compliance where an SIA licence is not being displayed correctly. Advice provided will not be recorded where compliance is achieved.

If a security operative is not brought into compliance the SIA may issue a written warning which is recorded.

Indequate ability to communicate in English

We do not hold any recorded information identifying individuals as having inadequate levels of English proficiency.

A pre-requisite to obtaining a qualification to apply for a SIA licence is that all learners should, as a minimum, have language skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening equivalent to the following:

• a B2 Level qualification on the Home Office’s list of recognised English tests and qualifications
• a B2 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
• an ESOL qualification at (Level 1) on the Ofqual register taken in England, Wales or Northern Ireland
• an ESOL qualification at Scottish Credit and qualifications Framework Level 5 awarded by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and taken in Scotland
• Functional Skills Level 1 in English
• SQA Core Skills in Communication at Scottish Credit and qualifications Framework Level 5
• Essential Skills Wales Communication Level 1

This pre-requisite ensures that individuals applying for an SIA licence possess the necessary level of English to effectively perform the role of a security operative. If there is a concern about a security operative having inadequate levels of English proficiency that precludes them from doing their job, these concerns should be reported via our Contact us form.

Companies in violation of ACS rules

The SIA has issued 440 improvement notices to approved contractors between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025. 19 businesses have been withdrawn from the Register of Approved Contractors.

From the 1,274 investigation cases we have completed during 2024 to 2025 financial year, we have referred 45 cases to our Criminal Investigation team, 12 to our partner agencies and 8 to our compliance investigation team.

Improvement options are not sanctions and are not tracked. We therefore cannot provide this information as it is not centrally held and requires us to interrogate our systems. When considering this FOI request as a whole it would exceed the cost limit.

The Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) is a quality assurance scheme for the private security industry. The SIA approves private security companies. Participation in the SIA’s Approved Cotnractor Scheme is voluntary, so any company that is part of the scheme has chosen to be. Approval is granted for specific activities and not for the company as a whole.

In order to stay approved a business must continue to meet the scheme’s eligibility requirements, fit and proper conditions and the ACS standard. Businesses must be assessed by one of the SIA’s approved assessing bodies every year so that the SIA can be sure that the business still meets the standard expected of an approved contractor.

A breach of the SIA’s conditions may lead to withdrawal of ACS approval. The SIA seek to work with a business to obtain conformance with the fit and proper conditions and ACS standard whenever this can be achieved without undermining the credibility of the scheme.

The SIA has a range of options for dealing with non-compliance that can be effective in quickly securing compliance and avoids the SIA from having to use our statutory powers to take formal action e.g. placing a condition on a businesses approval or withdrawing approval. The SIA will consider an administrative sanction where there have been breaches of the scheme. The administrative sanctions that the SIA makes use of are listed below.

Verbal warnings – issued to a business where there has been non-conformance with the ACS. The SIA may choose to issue a verbal warning when it is the first time a minor breach has been identified, and steps have/will be taken to remedy or mitigate the breach.

Written warnings – issued to a business where there has been non-conformance with the ACS. The SIA may choose to issue a written warning where a subsequent minor breach occurs, and steps have/will be taken to remedy or mitigate the breach and it appears unlikely that the breach will be repeated.

Improvement Notices – issued to a business in relation to non-compliance with the Private Security Industry Act 2001. The notice sets out the improvements required and is discharged when the SIA is satisfied that improvements have been made.

Improvements – if during the lifetime of a businesses approval, the SIA become aware of non-conformance with the fit and proper conditions and other conditions, and/or non- conformance with the ACS standard, the SIA may write to advise a business of the improvements that must be made to conform with the ACS requirements to maintain approval. For non-conformance with fit and proper and other conditions a business will be required to:

• Prepare an action plan setting out how they will address non-conformance within a specified timeframe
• Submit to a visit to check conformance at the business’s costs within a specified timeframe

Improvement Needs – this describes non-conformance with the ACS Standard, where action is necessary in order to meet the requirements of the ACS Standard. Typically, a business will be required to:

• Prepare an action plan setting out how they will address non-conformance within a specified timeframe
• Submit to a visit to check conformance at the business’s cost within a specified period of time (usually 6 weeks)

Further information about our Approved Contractor Scheme can be found in Get Approved, which is available from this page: Applying for ACS approval: guidance and forms.

Companies supplying unlicensed operatives

Between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025, 15 businesses were issued with an improvement notice for contravening section 5 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 (supplying unlicensed operatives). This figure includes businesses who are approved contractors and non-approved businesses.

Between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025, 1 company was prosecuted for an offence contrary to section 5(1) of the Private Security Industry Act 2001.

Companies under investigation

There are 445 companies subject to compliance investigations and 96 businesses subject to criminal investigations as at 25 July 2025.

You can read our SIA enforcement report, which provides details of monthly reports on the SIA’s enforcement activity.

[Ref: FOI 0567]