Security Guards: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with representatives of the security sector on the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) recruitment levels and (b) deployment of licensed security guards.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 10th September 2021

As required by the Private Security Industry Act 2001, the Security Industry Authority (SIA) regulates the private security industry and issues licences for certain roles in the sector.

Both the Home Office and the SIA recognise the impact the pandemic has had on licence-holders and the private security industry, particularly in the hospitality sector and night-time economy.

The SIA confirms that the number of active SIA Door Supervisor licence-holders is currently higher than it has ever been. As of 2 August 2021, there were 286,571 Door Supervisor licence-holders compared with 270,307 at the end of the 2019/20 financial year.

The number of Door Supervisor applications received by the SIA in the FY 2020/21 was also higher than previous years, standing at 118,458, compared with 114,340 in 2019/2020. ­­­­­­­This trend has continued so far this financial year, with 45,056 applications received in the period April-July 2021 compared with 33,074 in the same period last year.

Given these encouraging numbers following the changes to training in April 2021, and the work that the SIA has done with training providers’ awarding bodies to ensure that training can be delivered through a mixture of self-study, virtual classrooms, and face-to-face training in Covid-19 secure environments, the SIA is confident that there is, and will continue to be, a strong pool of licence holders that security companies and buyers of security can draw on.

The SIA has engaged with the UK Door Security Association, the Night Time Industries Association, and the sector to consider concerns and keep capacity issues regarding active licences under review.

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