SIA celebrates 10 years

Congratulations to the Security Industry Authority (SIA), regulator of the UK’s private security industry.

Established with the intention of reducing crime and raising standards in the private security industry - indirectly contributing towards the greater safety of the British public - the SIA has changed the way we work and helped improve the sector as a whole.

Much-needed regulations have been brought in during the last decade, including:

• Licensing individuals – the SIA has issues almost one million licences across seven sectors)
• Recognising excellence with the Approved Contractor Scheme
• Preventing unsuitable people from working in the security industry
• Ensuring that those individuals who flout the law are removed from working in licensable roles.
• Awarding qualifications - over 900,000 licence-linked qualifications have been awarded and, with exception of the Food Safety award, these are the most popular vocational qualifications in the UK.

So we’ve got a lot to thank the SIA for – for giving start-up companies the first accreditation to aim for, and encouraging others to climb the ladder to excellence. And for those employing our services, they can rest assured that the people they work with are licenced and qualified at keeping everybody (and everybody’s reputation) safe.

Here at Venture Security, we have achieved incredible heights having become one of only forty Approved Close Protection (CP) suppliers in the UK, and classed among the top 5% of all SIA Approved Contractors. The Approved Contractor Scheme provides a hallmark of quality for security providers and reassurance for security buyers and the public, and puts the gold star on our name.  

So happy birthday to the SIA, and thank you for turning our industry around, recognising quality and making it difficult for cowboys to damage the reputation of our sector as a whole. Save some cake for us!