FOI release

SIA processes for licensing foreign nationals

Published 12 September 2025

Request

Right-to-work vetting in licence applications

What is the:

• total number of door supervisor licence applications received, broken down by year and applicant nationality (UK nationals versus foreign nationals)
• number of applications rejected due to the applicant lacking a legal right to work in the UK, broken down by year and nationality (where recorded)
• SIA’s policy or procedure for verifying the right-to-work status of foreign nationals, including refugees or asylum seekers with incomplete 5-year residential histories - please also identify any changes to these procedures during the specified period

Criminality checks for migrant applicants

Please provide:

• the number of door supervisor licence applications from foreign nationals refused due to criminal convictions or non-conviction information (such as arrests or allegations), broken down by year and nationality (where recorded)
• the SIA’s process for obtaining criminal record checks from outside the UK for foreign nationals who have spent 6 or more continuous months outside the UK in the past 5 years, including how the SIA handles cases where such checks are unavailable (such as for refugees from conflict zones)
• details of any risk assessments or internal guidance used by the SIA to evaluate the ‘fit and proper’ status of migrant applicants with incomplete criminal history records, including copies of relevant documents or their titles and dates

Licences issued to migrants

Please provide the number of:

• door supervisor licences issued to foreign nationals, broken down by year and nationality (specific countries where possible)
• licences issued to individuals with refugee or asylum-seeker status, broken down by year
• licences issued to foreign nationals later found to lack a legal right to work in the UK, broken down by year

Criminality of migrant licence holders

Please provide:

• the number of door supervisor licences held by foreign nationals revoked due to criminal convictions, broken down by year, nationality (where recorded), and type of offence (such as violent crimes, sexual offences, drug-related crimes, immigration offences)
• the number of licences held by foreign nationals suspended or revoked based on non-conviction information (such as arrests or allegations of criminality), broken down by year and nationality (where recorded)
• details of any internal reports, audits, or reviews conducted by the SIA (or on its behalf) between 2020 and 2024 that address criminality by migrant licence holders, including the titles and dates of such documents (or copies, if available)

Enforcement and immigration violations

Please provide the number of:

• SIA-led or joint enforcement operations (such as with Home Office Immigration Enforcement or the police) targeting door supervisors, broken down by year, and the number of foreign nationals found to be working illegally (for example without a valid licence or the right to work)
• cases where the SIA has referred foreign national licence holders to the Home Office Immigration Enforcement team due to suspected immigration violations or criminality, broken down by year

Post-2007 reforms

Please give details of any SIA guidance, internal memos, or policy documents issued since the 2007 licensing scandal (where illegal immigrants obtained licences) that address right-to-work verification or criminality checks for migrant applicants. Please provide copies or, if too voluminous, a list of document titles and dates.

Response

The SIA holds the information you have requested. The first part of this response constitutes a refusal to deal with part of your request.

Exceeding the appropriate cost limit

Section 12(1)-(4) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows a public authority to refuse to deal with a request where it estimates that it would exceed the appropriate cost limit to provide the requested information 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 Information Commissioner’s Office 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.

Responding to this request – especially the requests for the number of suspensions and revocations based on non-conviction information, the requests for the information relating to enforcement and immigration violations, and the request for the information relating to post-2007 reforms – would require the SIA to interrogate its systems to extract the information requested. This means that the information cannot be instantly isolated and retrieved for the purposes of providing a reliable and readily available response.

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

The information we can provide

We can provide responses to parts of your request. Please see the information we have provided below.

Right-to-work vetting in licence applications

The CSV file ‘Right-to-work vetting in licence applications’ shows the:

• total number of door supervisor licence applications received, broken down by year and applicant nationality (UK nationals versus foreign nationals)
• number of applications refused due to the applicant lacking a legal right to work in the UK, broken down by year and nationality (where recorded) – where there are less than 10 applicants, the entry reads ‘<10’ in the CSV file

The process for right to work checks is set out in Get Licensed and further explained on our website: Apply for an SIA licence. The SIA only issues front line licences to individuals who have the right to work in the UK. We use Home Office systems to check the individual’s right to work status.

Criminality checks for migrant applicants

The CSV file ‘Criminality checks for migrant applicants’ shows the number of door supervisor licence applications from foreign nationals refused due to criminal convictions or non-conviction information (such as arrests or allegations), broken down by year and nationality (where recorded).

Get Licensed sets out our licensing criteria and processes. It is the applicant’s responsibility to obtain a criminal record check from outside the UK.

The SIA requires all applicants to provide criminal record checks from any country in which they have lived for 6 or more continuous months in the last 5 years. In some exceptional cases, the applicant may be unable to provide the required criminal record check. The process for these cases is set out on pages 43 to 44 of Get Licensed and explained further on this page of our website: Check if you can get an SIA licence with a criminal record.

Licences issued to migrants

The CSV file ‘Licences issued to migrants’ shows the number of:

• door supervisor licences issued to foreign nationals, broken down by year and nationality, including specific countries – where there are less than 10, the entry will reflect ‘<10’
• licences issued to individuals with refugee or asylum-seeker status, broken down by year – where there are less than 10, the entry will reflect ‘<10’
• licences issued to foreign nationals later found to lack a legal right to work in the UK, broken down by year from 2020 to 2024

We only grant front line licences to individuals who have the right to work in the UK. Asylum seekers who have the right to work are unable to work in the private security industry if they are subject to the shortage occupation list. The data we have provided relates to those with a “discretionary leave” visa.

Individuals later found to lack a legal right to work in the UK had the right to work in the UK when the SIA granted them a licence. An individual’s right to work may be checked periodically depending upon their specific circumstances and right-to-work status. Such checks can take place throughout the life cycle of an individual’s SIA licence. If a licence holder’s right-to-work status has changed or expired, the SIA will review their eligibility to hold an SIA licence.

Criminality of migrant licence holders

The CSV file ‘Criminality of migrant licence holders’ shows the number of licences (in all sectors), held by foreign nationals, which were revoked:

• due to criminal convictions, broken down by year and type of offence
• based on non-conviction information – where there are less than 10, the entry will reflect ‘<10’

There have been no internal reports, audits, or reviews between 2020 and 2024 that specifically address criminality by migrant licence holders.

Enforcement and immigration violations

We can provide a partial response to this question with information from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024.

There were 622 SIA-led or joint enforcement inspections between the period with the police, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, HMRC, and local authorities. Not all partners will be involved with every joint inspection that we undertake.

The SIA-led or joint enforcement inspections broken down by year are:

• 2020 – 27
• 2021 – 67
• 2022 – 133
• 2023 – 197
• 2024 – 198

The SIA made a total of 36 referrals to Home Office Immigration Enforcement, which are broken down by year as follows:

• 2020 – 6
• 2021 – 5
• 2022 – 4
• 2023 – 6
• 2024 – 15

[Ref: FOI 0565]