SIA consults on changes to licensing criteria

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) has launched a consultation on changes it is proposing to make to its licensing criteria.

The SIA is proposing to add new offences to the list of offences that the SIA considers relevant for licencing decisions including modern slavery, people trafficking and upskirting offences.

It is proposing to tighten up the rules around refusing a licence where an applicant has any criminal record that includes a sexual, child abuse or neglect offence, or a prison sentence of 48 months or more.

Applicants who have lived overseas in the last ten years would be required to provide an overseas criminal record check when they apply for an SIA licence. The change would bring the SIA’s rules more in line with the criminality checks required for UK visas where someone will be working in education, health or social care.

There are also plans to make clearer the broad range of other information that the SIA may take into account when deciding whether someone is ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence – for example for domestic violence orders or being subject to misconduct or other disciplinary proceedings.

The changes are being proposed to enhance public protection.

Tim Archer, the SIA’s Director of Licensing and Standards said: "There are currently around 440,000 individuals holding an SIA licence playing a vital role in keeping the public safe. As the Private Security Industry is increasingly asked to take on a wider role in protecting the public, public trust and confidence in private security is more important than ever.

"As the regulator, a key priority of the SIA is to ensure those who should not have a licence to work in private security are not permitted to. Although the current criteria have not been substantially changed for some years, the SIA has taken a more robust approach to considering individual sexual and child abuse and neglect offences since 2021. We have also considered the Angiolini Inquiry findings from 2024 which proposed a much more risk-averse approach to police vetting in relation to sexual offences."

The consultation will run for 10 weeks, closing on 20 May 2025. The SIA will then review responses and the final proposals will be submitted to Home Office Ministers for approval and publication.