SIA Licence

B

Baghdad Bandit

Full Registered User
Close Protection

Licensing for people working in Close Protection came into effect across England and Wales on 20 March 2006; it is now illegal to work in Close Protection without an SIA licence. This applies if your services are supplied for the purposes of or in connection with any contract to a consumer.


Unless your employer or company has been given an exemption under Section 4(4) of the Private Security Industry Act 2001, it is a criminal offence to work as a contracted Close Protection operative in England and Wales without an SIA licence. An exemption is applicable only where the employer or company you work for has been granted Approved Contractor status by the SIA and the other conditions of Section 4(4) have also been met. Every condition must be met for this section to be applied. If you do work without a licence you will be committing a criminal offence, punishable on conviction by a fine of up to £5,000 or 6 months imprisonment or both.

Cost of a Licence

The licence application fee is £245 for a three year licence. The fee is to cover the cost of processing your application and is not refundable.

If you pay your own licence fee you will be able to claim tax relief against your taxable income. For example, if you pay the basic rate of tax the relief is worth £53.90. If you are an employer paying the licence fee on behalf of an employee there will be no tax or National Insurance liability.

Some security operatives may need more than one licence; in such cases the second licence will be discounted by 50%. How does this work?

Licence Integration

In some cases, we are satisfied that the licensing criteria to be met for one licensable activity are sufficient to allow a licensed individual to carry out other licensable activities

hope this helps.
 
Do you require an SIA licence to work for non UK companies in places like IRAQ or AFGHANISTAN? i.e if i were to be offered a contract with an american company in IRAQ doing CP work or Static Guard would i require an SIA licence for this non UK company? thanks for your help.
 
The SIA is (in essence) a section of the UK government. You do NOT require one if you are working in another country for a foreign operator.
It is becoming more and more frequent that UK based operators will require a badge for those who are deployed overseas, as this means that the employer can show due dilligence by being able to prove that you have been effectively trained in first aid and have passed a criminality check.

Some foreign countries are now starting to recognise the SIA badge as an approved level of competence, but on the whole, NO you do not necessarily require it when in foreign theatres for foreign operators.

Hope this helps.
Also.. WELL DONE Commando, on finding such an old post and replying to it lol.

RM
 
Thanks you so much for your help with my question. Have you hear of an american company called SOC-SMG? I have recently left the Royal Marines after serving 12 years and gaining substantial operational experience in places like kosovo, sierra leone, afghanistan etc, and my friend who is also and ex marine is working for this company out in iraq doing static guard, i am veru interested in going to do the same sort of work could you help me find work or do you know of any jobs going, i would really like to find somebody with experience on this website to help me find my first job thanks mate.
 
I am the completely wrong person to ask about working in HE, but MANY MANY people on here have YEARS of Operational Experience in Hostile Theatres.
I see you are new on the forum, so use the search facility above and work through the forum where you will find PLENTY of information including companies to avoid as well as companies to work for.

What MAY be of specific interest to yourself is the fact that despite this is a UK led forum, we have a host of international operators on board... They may be able to advise (seeing as you are not going down the SIA route).

One piece of advice that I could offer based on my knowledge of companies is that you MAY want to look at SIA licensing.... If you have recently left the forces then you will hopefully have access to your resettlement grant. If this is the case, and you are going in to HE then why not use that resettlement whilst it is available to you? The following companies advertise on the website, and I have NO ISSUE with recommending them, their reputations speak for themselves.
EXCELLENTIA.CO.UK
G4S specialist training
Longmoor Group

The above all work in hostile environments, and recruit as well as train people in CP.
please note that (from their website) excellentia only employ:

  • Former UK Special Forces
  • Former UK Royal Military Police Close Protection Unit (Operatives & Instructors)
  • Former UK Government Security & Intelligence Services
  • Former UK Police Royalty and Special Branch Protection (Operatives & Instructors)
  • Former UK Police Surveillance and Covert Infiltration Units
G4S bring in an HR representative at the end of the course and interview all trainees for the possibility of going to work for them in the Iraq or Afghan.

And Longmoor are just Huge (In UK terms)

Each of the above have fantastic names in regards to training.

There are others who train and advertise on the forum, but the above companies are most likely to fit the HE field (NB. If you advertise on the forum and also specialise in HE then please feel free to add to my posting, and please accept my apologies for me forgetting to include you in the above list)

So...

Go use the search facility, you will see plenty of seasoned operators with plenty of advice, including an excellent packing list and a great introduction to becoming a CPO.

Don't forget the chat facility is also online which (depending on who's in the room at the time) can be a great place to get your questions answered straight away.

Most of all, welcome to the forum, you have found the best resource on the net for an unbiased account of all things security related, contributed to by some of the top names in their own chosen fields.

And anything at all I can do to help (along with everyone else on here) you just need to ask.

(use the search bar before posting a question though as your question will probably already be out there.

RM
 
Also, remember that part of the CPWorld group of companies is closeprotectionwork.com

AND if your mate is already working for the aforementioned company and you know him well enough to distinguish the BS from the truth then it sounds like he might just be the very best person to talk to, but do take everyone else on here's reactions into account.

Cheers

RM
 
Thank you very much for your help it has been most useful and i will take your advice on board! one final question for no though, i have researched a lot of different companies to do my CP course with in the UK, however most of them advertise there course as being SIA lincenced does this mean that i wont be able to do their CP course because i cant get an SIA lincence or can i still go to them and complete the course to get the qualifications but obviously not go on from there to apply for SIA licence.? thanks Adey
 
Back
Top