Licensing Matters

When you apply for a licence, we ask if you have a passport. If you do, we ask for the passport number. We use your passport number in our identity checks. Because of this, the number you provide needs to be from a current, valid passport.

If your passport expires and you get a new passport, you can (and should) update your passport number for any licence applications you submit. Please do not apply for a licence using your old passport number.

Please make sure the password for your SIA online account is memorable to you. Do not share it with anyone.   

If you forget your password, you can follow the steps below to reset it: 

1. Go to our login page 
2. Click ‘Forgot Password?’ below the ‘Log in’ box 
3. When prompted, enter the email address registered to your SIA online account 
4. Click ‘Reset Password’ 
5. Check your emails for an email from us which contains a 6 digit secure code – you should receive the email within a few minutes (make sure to check your ‘spam’ and ‘junk’ folders too) but if you do not receive it after 15 minutes click ‘Resend Code’  
6. Enter your secure code into the box on the screen 
7. Set your new password 

Your password must: 

Contain at least 1 capital letter 

Contain at least 8 characters

Not contain more than 30 characters

Contain at least 1 number

Contain at least 1 special character

Your SIA licence will not renew automatically. You must apply for a renewal if you want to keep working in the same role after your current licence expires. 
 
You cannot renew a licence unless you currently hold an active licence in that sector. If your licence has expired, you must apply for a new licence.  
 
However, even if you do hold an active licence in the relevant sector, this does not guarantee that you will be granted a licence when you apply to renew. You may no longer meet our licensing requirements, for example because you have been convicted of a relevant offence. Or we may have changed our licensing criteria since we granted your current licence, for example by introducing new training.  
 
You should renew your licence as soon as you can to give us as much time as possible to process your application. You can apply to renew your licence 4 months before your current licence expires. You will not lose time on your new licence by renewing early. We will add any time left on your current licence onto your new one and your new licence will be valid from the day we grant it.  
 
You must have a refresher qualification before you can renew your close protection, door supervision, or security guard licence.

When you renew your licence, we grant you a new licence with a new number.   
 
We do not cancel your old licence when we grant your new one, we just let it run until it expires. That is why you will receive a message telling you that your licence has expired: we’re referring to your old licence, not your new one.  

Your SIA licence may allow you to work in roles and sectors other than those specified by the licence. This is called ‘licence integration’. We give a full breakdown of this below. 

If you hold a non-front line licence 
If you hold a non-front line licence, your licence also allows you to perform the licensable activity of a key holder. 

If you hold a front line licence 
If you hold any front line licence, your licence also allows you to perform the licensable activity of:

• a non-front line licence holder 
• a key holder 

If you hold a security guarding licence 
If you hold a security guarding licence, your licence also allows you to use closed circuit video surveillance (CCTV) for either or both of the following purposes: 

• to guard premises against unauthorised access 
• to guard property against damage or theft 

If you hold a close protection licence  
If you hold a close protection licence, your licence also allows you to:

• perform the licensable activity of a door supervisor 
• perform the licensable activity of a security guard
• use CCTV for the purposes of security guarding (explained above)

If you hold a door supervision licence 
If you hold a door supervision licence, your licence also allows you to: 

• perform the licensable activity of a security guard
• use CCTV for the purposes of security guarding (explained above) 

You can learn more about licence integration on our website.

Many of you need to visit the post office as part of your SIA licence application. Some of you have asked if we could move this part of the licence application process online. 

Unfortunately, we cannot move this part of the application process online and you need to visit the post office in person. We will explain why below.  

We check your criminal record through one of three UK disclosure bodies: the Disclosure and Barring Service, Access NI, and Disclosure Scotland. There is a legal obligation on us to confirm your identity before we ask one of the disclosure bodies to run a criminal record check on you.  

The disclosure body must have confidence that we and they are talking about the same person before they disclose information to us. Otherwise, they could give us someone else’s criminal record instead of yours. That would be a serious breach of sensitive data and could result in the disclosure body being fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office. If we repeatedly got this wrong, the disclosure bodies could take legal action against us. 

To prevent that from happening, the disclosure bodies specify what we must do to confirm your identity. They require us to check your original documents, not copies or scans. They also require a photo of you and a legal attestation from someone else that the person in the photo is you.  

If you are applying through a linked business using our licence management service, the company representative checks your documents and attests that the person in the photo is you. If we have granted you a post office exception, you send us your documents and a photo of you which a counter-signatory has signed and dated. (We rarely grant post office exceptions. If we do grant you an exception, it will probably take us longer to process your application than it would have if you had attended the post office as normal.) 

In all other cases, you need to visit the post office. The post office clerk will check your identity documents and take a photo of you. They will legally attest that you are the same person who is shown in the identity documents.

Not all post office branches offer this service. To find out whether yours does: 

1. Use the post office branch finder.
2. Type your post code, town, or street name into the ‘Find a branch’ search bar, and select the correct option from the ones that come up. 
3. Click or tap the search button (the little magnifying glass to the right of the search bar). 
4. Under the heading ‘Do you need a specific service’, click or tap the ‘Filter services’ button. 
5. Select ‘Licence applications’.
6. Tick ‘SIA Licence Application’.
7. Click or tap the ‘Filter branches’ button.

You must not wear your SIA licence card back-to-front. Doing so is a breach of our licence conditions and an offence under section 9 (4) of the Private Security Industry Act 2001. 

Our licence conditions state that you must wear your licence where it can be seen at all times while you are engaged in licensable activity, unless: 

-you have reported your licence card lost or stolen  

-we have your licence card  

-the work you are doing requires that you are not identifiable as a licensed operative   

This means the front of your licence card, not the back. Schedule 2 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 (Licences) Regulations 2007 defines the front line licence as the front of the licence card – the part of the card that displays your name, photo, licence number, licensed sector, and expiry date. This legal definition causes the condition to mean that you must wear the front of your licence card where it can be seen at all times. 

The purpose of your licence card is to assure members of the public that you have been properly checked and vetted. They need to be able to see that the person they are speaking to is in fact the person we have licensed. Hiding your name and photo by wearing your licence card back-to-front prevents them from being able to do so. 

Read more about our licence conditions on our webpage: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/learn-about-the-sia-licence-conditions-you-must-follow#covert-activity 

Photographs of you 

When you apply for an SIA licence we ask for a passport-sized photo. This could be:  

• taken by counter staff at a post office
• provided by your employer
• provided by you through your SIA account   

If we grant you a front line licence we will print the photo on the front of the licence card.  

We use this photo in our identity checks. We compare it to the photo on your Group A identity document (or, for UK passport holders, the digital photograph held on HMPO’s systems). If you are applying for a front line licence, we will also compare it with the photo you gave to your training provider. This confirms that you are the person who took the training.  

By looking at all 3 photos, we can be sure that: 

• you are who you say you are
• you took the training we need you to take  

This is why we cannot use the photo on your passport, driving licence, or any other identity document for your SIA licence card. 

If you work for an SIA approved contractor, they may be able to issue you with something called a Licence Dispensation Notice, or ‘LDN’. An LDN allows you to work while your SIA licence application is being processed.

Your employer can only issue you with an LDN if:

• you held an active SIA licence when you submitted your licence application
• your current licence application is at the ‘checks in progress’ stage

This is so we can be sure that anyone working on an LDN has undergone a criminal record check within the last 3 years.

Your LDN will be valid for 5 weeks. If we do not make our licensing decision within the 5 weeks of the first LDN, your employer may ask for another. If we agree, the LDN will be issued through our system in the same way as the first one.

When you set up your SIA online account, we ask you to create a username and password. These details are your personal login details. They should not be shared with anyone else, including the company that you work for.  
 
Sharing your login details gives the person you have shared them with access to your account. If they can access your account, then they can pretend to be you. The account holds personal information that you may not want them to know, and allows the person logged into it to take certain actions – for example, to cancel your licence application.  
 
There should be no need for your employer to ask for your login details. We have services that they can use to manage parts of the application process for you. These tell you exactly what your employer will be able to see and do on your behalf, and then ask you to give your permission for that.  

When you create your account, we recommend that you:  

• use an email address that only you have access to  
• use an email address that you can access at any time (do not use your personal work email address if you can only access it at work)  

Please check your SIA online account regularly. We use it to send you important information.

Your SIA licence will not renew automatically. You must apply for a renewal if you want to keep working in the same role after your current licence expires.

You cannot renew a licence unless you currently hold an active licence in that sector. If your licence has expired, you must apply for a new licence. 

However, even if you do hold an active licence in the relevant sector, this does not guarantee that you will be granted a licence when you apply to renew. You may no longer meet our licensing requirements, for example because you have been convicted of a relevant offence. Or we may have changed our licensing criteria since we granted your current licence, for example by introducing new training. 

You should renew your licence as soon as you can to give us as much time as possible to process your application. You can apply to renew your licence 4 months before your current licence expires. You will not lose time on your new licence by renewing early. We will add any time left on your current licence onto your new one and your new licence will be valid from the day we grant it. 

Training requirements 

You must have a ‘refresher’ qualification before you can renew your door supervisor or security guard licence. From 1 April 2026, this requirement will also apply to close protection licence holders.

Read more about refresher training.

We process around 15,000 applications every month. The time it takes to process your application will be affected by many different factors, such as your address history, your nationality (if it affects your right to work in the UK), your criminal record if you have one, and whether you’ve spent time outside the UK.  

Most importantly, you can affect the speed of your application. If you give us incorrect or incomplete information, your application could be delayed. So please review the information you have given us before submitting your application. Once it is submitted you will not be able to change it. 

As soon as you submit your application, we will send you a message telling you exactly what else you need to do. Please read this carefully because we do not ask all applicants to do the same things. Remember, we will not start to process your application until you have followed all of these instructions. If we need more information from you whilst processing your application we will send you a message, so you should visit your online account regularly to make sure that you don’t miss any messages from us.

You can use our decision timescale indicator to get a rough estimate of how long your application will take to process.  The accuracy of the decision timescale indicator depends on all the information you have given us being correct. 

Use our decision timescale indicator here.

If you have ever created an SIA online account, we still have your records. Please do not create a new account. 

Instead of creating a new account, you can reset your password by following these steps: 

Click the ‘Forgot Password?’ link on the log in screen. 

Enter the email address registered to your SIA online account, then select the ‘Reset password’ button. 

Follow the instructions in the email we send you to reset your SIA online account password. 

If you do not receive this email, check your junk and spam email folders. 

Please remember, when you set up your SIA online account we ask you to create a username and password. These details are your personal login details. They should not be shared with anyone else, including the company that you work for. 

Please check your SIA online account regularly. We use it to send you important information.

Find out more

Keep up to date with the latest information from the SIA by signing up for GOV.UK email alerts. 

You will get an email any time we update one of our webpages. This will help you keep on top of any changes in our guidance.  

When signing up you can control how often you receive our email alerts. This ranges from once a day, once a week, or each time we add or update a page. If you pick the last option, you may get more than one email a day. 

Sign up to our email alerts

Before you submit your SIA licence application, you are given the opportunity to review everything you have told us. Please take the time to do this. It may save you time and money. 

We cannot exchange your licence if you apply for the wrong one.  

Say, for example, you meant to apply for a front line door supervisor licence but you actually applied for a non-front line licence, which we granted. If this happened, we would not be able to ‘swap’ the non-front line licence for a door supervisor licence. 

If you still wanted a door supervisor licence, you would need to submit a new application for it. We would not refund your original application fee, because we would have done what you paid us to do.  

It is important to understand the difference between front line and non-front line licences. Read about the types of SIA licence. 

It is against the law to tell us anything false in your application or to leave anything out that we asked for, even if you did so accidentally. 

This is because when you apply for an SIA licence you are making a legal declaration that everything you told us is true and you did not leave anything out. 

This declaration is binding even if you are applying for someone else, for example by using our Licence Assist or Licence Management services. 

If you break your legal declaration, you could go to prison for up to 6 months. You could also be fined: 

• an unlimited amount if you live in England or Wales 
• up to £10,000 if you live in Scotland 
• up to £5,000 if you live in Northern Ireland. 

Make sure everything in your application is correct before you submit it. You will not be able to change it after you submit. 

Our appeals process allows you to challenge our licensing decisions. This is usually when we have rejected your application or revoked your licence due to a criminal offence on your record, or other information we have received. You can appeal our decision if: 

• Our information is factually incorrect 
• We have told you that you fall into our ‘Consider Additional Factors’ (CAF) category 

If you fall into our CAF category, you can give us character references as part of your appeal. This article explains what makes a character reference suitable. It is important to understand this if you want to make an effective appeal. 

For a character reference to be suitable, your referee must: 

• Genuinely know you 
• Know about your offence 
• Give evidence of your rehabilitation 

We are likely to give more weight to references from someone who is respected in their community, such as a teacher or a lawyer. 

We give little weight to references from anyone who may have a vested interest in you getting an SIA licence. These include: 

• Close friends 
• Family members 
• Current or potential security employers 

Your referee must demonstrate that they genuinely know you, including knowing about your offence. They must give a detailed account of your character, including why they think you are fit to hold an SIA licence. They should give evidence of your efforts to rehabilitate yourself, like actions you have taken to improve your behaviour or make a positive contribution to your community. They must answer all the questions on the character reference form, or we will consider the reference invalid. 

We are likely to reject character references that are vague or leave out critical information. For example, a referee who says they have known you for years and you’re a good person but who does not give us any evidence of your efforts at rehabilitation. Or a reference that fails to account for the nature of your offence. If you were convicted of fraud, your referee should talk about how you rebuilt trustworthiness. If you were convicted of a violent offence, they should show how you took accountability, built up self-control and anger management, or promoted non-violence in your community. We are likely to reject a character reference if we feel it does not adequately address the seriousness of your offence. 

Remember that we value the quality of character references over the quantity. Your appeal is more likely to succeed with one detailed, comprehensive reference than it is with multiple vague or incomplete ones. 

For more detail on providing a suitable character reference, please see pages 51 to 52 of Get Licensed. 

We may ask you for evidence of a criminal record check from another country as part of your SIA licence application. We will ask for this if you are currently living outside the UK or if you have lived outside the UK for a period of six continuous months or more during the last 5 years. Providing evidence of a criminal record check from the country, or countries, you lived in is a crucial step in your licence application. 

In very rare cases we may grant an exception to this requirement. There is some confusion over who might be eligible, with some applicants believing they qualify for an exception when they do not. It is important to understand that we only grant such exceptions where the specific circumstances of an applicant justify that.   

We would only grant you an exception if it was impossible for you to get a criminal record check from the country you lived in through no fault of your own, for example if: 

• the country’s government no longer exists 
• criminal record systems in the country are not functioning due to war or instability 
• contacting the country’s government would put you or your family at risk 
• the country does not provide criminal record checks for people who do not live there 

Cases of inconvenience or even difficulty do not qualify as grounds for exception. We would not grant you an exception for reasons such as struggling with administrative processes or language barriers. Valid criminal record checks are essential to our ability to protect the public. We expect our applicants to make every effort to provide one. 

If you believe you might qualify for an exception, you will need to give us specific evidence showing why you cannot get a criminal record check. In the rare cases that we do grant exceptions, the rigorous checks involved in the process are likely to cause your application to be delayed. Read the guidance on our website carefully and make sure you explore all other options before applying for an exception. If you are in doubt, contact us directly. 

You can find information on how to apply for overseas criminal record checks, as well as contact details for embassies, high commissions, and consulates, on GOV.UK here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

When you apply for a licence, we ask you if you have had a conviction, caution or warning within the last 12 months. This is because recent offences may not always appear in the information we receive from the criminality disclosure bodies.
  
If you have a conviction, caution or warning within the last 12 months then you must tell us about it. If you do not and we find out about it later, we may revoke any licences you hold. We may also prosecute you: section 22 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 makes it a criminal offence to knowingly or recklessly make a false statement to the SIA.

When you apply for a licence, we ask if you hold a UK driving licence. If you say yes, we ask for the driving licence number. 

Most UK driving licence numbers use a standard format based on the driver’s name, sex, and date of birth. Our licensing system looks for this standard format in the driving licence number you enter. The information you give us must therefore match the information you gave the DVLA. If it is different, then our system will not accept the number you enter. 

Please make sure that the details you give us match the details printed on the driving licence. If they are not, contact us through your online account and ask us to change your details on our system. 

Some UK driving licences feature 2 additional numbers to the right of (and separate to) the main number, like this: XXXXX111111XX1XX  99. Please do not enter these last 2 numbers into our licence application form.