Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for customer service of changing the operation of the Security Industry Authority contact centre from telephone to email.

The Security Industry Authority is moving towards a digital by default licensing system. We are aware that there have been issues during the transition to digital which have resulted in higher than expected volumes of customer contact.

We are working closely with the Security Industry Authority to ensure customer service issues are addressed; the Security Industry Authority have already increased the number of staff responding to customer queries.