Category: Qualifications

Protecting public safety: our latest action against training malpractice 

Op Resolute Update, December 2025 

An update from Pete Easterbrook, Director of Inspections and Enforcement. Pete leads the SIA’s drive against training malpractice and qualification fraud. 

Training malpractice and qualification fraud are not simply shortcuts – they have real-world public safety consequences. That’s why we continue to take decisive action under Operation RESOLUTE to protect the integrity of SIA licence-linked qualifications and ensure the public can have confidence that security operatives are properly trained and genuinely qualified. 

Coordinated nationwide action 

In October 2025, our teams conducted a series of targeted inspections across the UK, visiting 9 training centres in a single week. While standards were generally high, we found that three training centres we visited were delivering training below our expectations.  In one of the cases, we witnessed malpractice taking place. As a result, the centre is being investigated by the awarding organisation, and any further training will be scrutinised and monitored. 

In November 2025, our teams conducted a major series of targeted inspections. More than twenty officers from the SIA’s Inspections and Enforcement Directorate, working closely with our partners at Ofqual, carried out simultaneous unannounced inspections across London, Manchester, Bradford, and Liverpool. 

In a single day, we visited 8 venues: 5 approved training centres, 2 security companies, and 1 non-approved training centre. We took this targeted action in direct response to intelligence we received. It was necessary to disrupt an organised network we believe has been engaging in serious malpractice and fraud. 

The results speak for themselves. The training centres we visited are now under investigation and close scrutiny from the awarding bodies. One of these centres has been further sanctioned, meaning the awarding organisation will not authorise the release of any further qualifications until it is satisfied the quality of training can be met. 

Operation Resolute: our commitment to rooting out malpractice 

These operations are part of Operation Resolute, our comprehensive initiative to identify, pursue, and root out anyone who undermines the system. We are determined to ensure the public have confidence that SIA licence holders have been properly trained, are genuinely qualified, and are fully capable of doing the job required of them. 

We’re now receiving intelligence from a wider range of sources. As these recent operations demonstrate, we’re using that intelligence, our UK-wide resources, and those of our partners to track down individuals who falsely believe they won’t be caught. 

Since the start of 2025  

  • 19 training centres have been closed down  
  • 242 SIA licences have been suspended  

Report your concerns 

If you have concerns about the integrity of SIA licence-linked training, please report them. Every piece of intelligence helps us protect the public and support the majority of training providers who operate to good standards.   

We will continue to provide updates on our progress as appropriate.  

If you have concerns about a training provider, please do report your concerns: Find out how you report training malpractice.  

More information about the parties involved in delivering SIA licence-linked training is available from our Learn about SIA licence-linked training  page. 

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New Close Protection Training Requirements 

By Rick Mounfield, Chief Executive of the Security Institute

The role of the Close Protection Officer has grown in the past decade. It’s no longer acceptable to be the protection on the shoulder, the Close Protection Officer needs to be the security and safety advisor to the principal. Their knowledge of threats goes beyond the physical and includes vulnerabilities that come via the internet of things and new and emerging security risks are realised that will determine who is the best at their craft.  A modern and capable Close Protection Officer needs to remain current in multiple vectors of threat and the mitigations (risk managers) that will secure the principal, their family and business. Can Close Protection Officers afford to be ignorant to these new and emerging threats? I would suggest not.  

Contracts are often lost on a whim and the protection officers must be trusted to advise on a range of threats to build trust so that the family can live their lives as freely as possible. Wealth and profile can often lead to living a privileged life in a golden cage.  

The new enhancements in the licensed linked skills and qualifications required by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) go a long way to addressing the shortfalls of the past. They did not decide upon these new skills lightly. The consultation with industry’s best operators and the companies who employ them, has been instrumental in improving the quality of Close Protection Officers and should be applauded. Many will think that the upskilling has not gone far enough but it is not for the regulator to set the bar so high that it precludes the masses, it is a baseline that sets a standard that all can meet and then allows the best to go further through individual professional development that allows them to stand out from the crowd and secure clients through fair competition. It is the Close Protection Officers determination and personal endeavours to be the best version of themself that will secure the best clients.  

Increasing the requirements to offer better medical capabilities is the most important upgrade in my opinion. However, in today’s society, even low risk locations, there is an ever present need to be aware of the threat of terrorism and counter terrorism awareness through the ACT training is also important.  

The industry overwhelmingly decided not to separate the door supervisor role from the Close Protection licensed operators. Many Close Protection Officers will supplement their income by working in a Door Supervisor role. This is applicable but the Door Supervisor role requires different soft and hard skills that are out with ordinary Close Protection doctrine. It is important the Close Protection Officer working in the night-time economy is well prepared to provide the appropriate service and protection to partygoers. A failure to understand physical intervention in this role can have life changing impacts for many if they are not trained properly.  

Training and delivery of the necessary skills are moving into a hybrid format and that is also a positive move forward. All areas of the business world have embraced digital methods of training and if the industry is to embrace the fast- moving changes to the operational environment, it must stay at the cutting edge of technology and training delivery methods. Obviously, some aspects must be practised in a physical environment, but many skills and practices can, and should be, delivered in easily accessible methods. Webinars and online courses are better than they have ever been, and platforms have improved to deliver quality training remotely.  

Overall, I am encouraged by the new regime, and I hope to support the ongoing development of the sector that I grew up in. It is a vital service and I hope that the majority of Close Protection Officers will embrace the enhancements as we drive the professional standards ever higher.  

Quality assuring private security training

We began the skills and qualifications review at the beginning of September to review the criteria required for our licence-linked qualifications. We do this every five years so that the skills criteria are kept current.

This month, our Quality and Risk Manager, Tracey Lilley, discusses the skills and qualifications review and about the importance of this opportunity for the industry to share its views to ensure a robust assessment processes within the private security industry.

Our blog aims to discuss developments in the private security industry and to provide further insight and opinion on our work. We look forward to having an on-going discussion with you; please share your comments and opinions.

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I’m a Quality & Risk Manager at the SIA. My role includes liaising with the awarding organisations on the delivery, assessment and quality assurance of the qualifications required for an SIA licence. We have contracts with all the awarding organisations who approve training providers to deliver licence-linked qualifications across the UK.  Training providers are quality assured by the awarding organisations, who are themselves quality assured by the qualification regulators and by us.

A big part of my work has been the development of a comprehensive quality improvement plan designed to support both the awarding organisations and their training centres. This plan is designed to continually improve the way in which the qualifications required for an SIA licence are delivered and assessed.

Our relationship with the awarding organisations and training providers has developed a great deal over the last year.  We now work more effectively together with improved identification, coordination and management of training malpractice.

A key component of the improvement plan involves the introduction of a new initiative of   unannounced visits to training centres delivering qualifications required for an SIA licence. These visits will give us the opportunity to see training being delivered, speak to learners, and observe assessments. Visits will start from the beginning of 2019, so don’t be surprised to see me or my colleagues popping in to observe training and assessments being delivered.

Skills and Qualifications Review
As most of you will be aware, we have begun a wide-ranging review of the licence-linked qualifications needed for the private security industry. We have widened the scope of this work to consider not just the mandatory qualifications we require, but how to support the industry to address the skills and knowledge needed by operatives throughout their careers across the private security industry.

One key element of this review is to make sure that robust assessment processes exist to ensure the integrity of the qualifications achieved. This will further assure us of the integrity of the qualifications and help us to reduce instances of training malpractice.

We have set up expert working groups consisting of representatives from all the awarding organisations and subject matter specialists from the security sectors we regulate.

One group was designed to review the current assessment and quality assurance measures and look at ways of strengthening these to ensure they continue to meet the needs of their relevant sector, protect the public, and are future-proof for the next 5 years.

At our first meeting the following recommendations were discussed and are being considered:

  • CCTV Practical – some short answer questions to ensure full knowledge of all elements if it is not possible to demonstrate them all fully
  • Conflict Management – move away from multiple choice questions to practical assessment. This is better suited to the content and can also be a way of assessing a learner’s ability to speak English
  • Working in the private security industry – some practical assessment around communication skills
  • Working as a Door Supervisor – some practical assessment around searching and report writing
  • Working as a Security Guard – some practical assessment around searching and report writing, plus use of radios
  • English Language requirements – We discussed using a standardised pre-entry English language competency test, and all agreed this would be an option to pursue.

We have held further discussions with our experts to consider the findings from our first consultation on the specifications for learning and qualifications, along with the research we conducted to understand the current and future skills needs of the private security industry in the UK.

All of this invaluable feedback and opinion will feed into the next draft of our specifications for learning and qualifications. The expert working group will again provide valuable insight on this.

We will be consulting for a final time on the new specifications in January 2019. Please keep an eye out for this, as it will be your last opportunity to help shape the qualifications and to ensure they stay relevant for your industry in the years ahead.