Guidance for people running security contracts.
Practical writing on SIA licensing, screening and site compliance, from the team building SecureOptix.
Dark by four, empty by Christmas: security through the winter peak
Longer hours of darkness, void sites nobody visits for a fortnight, and officers working alone in weather that makes a patrol genuinely unpleasant. What that does to coverage and to the records.
Read the article →Martyn's Law: your regulator is about to regulate your clients too
The SIA becomes the regulator for Martyn's Law, expected in spring 2027. For a security contractor that means two things at once: clients who will need help they have never asked for, and a regulator seeing your work from a new angle.
Working time for security officers: the exception is not an exemption
Security and surveillance is one of the jobs gov.uk names where the 48-hour average can be exceeded. That is a special case with compensatory rest attached, not a line through the Working Time Regulations — and the records are what tells the two apart.
BS 7858 screening: the gaps assessors actually find
Most security companies believe their screening is sound until somebody audits it properly. The failures are rarely missing files — they are unexplained gaps, references that prove nothing, and screening that stopped at the start date.
Licence expiry is an operational problem, not an admin one
An officer whose SIA licence lapsed last night is not a paperwork issue — it is an unfillable post, a contractual exposure and a potential criminal offence. Why expiry tracking belongs in the rota, not in a spreadsheet someone reviews monthly.
Recording conflict and use of force properly
The incidents most likely to be examined years later are the ones written up fastest, at the end of a difficult shift.
Your SIA licence renewal is delayed. What are the actual options?
A renewal submitted in good time can still run late. What matters at that point is knowing the current rules rather than guessing, because guessing wrong is the expensive part.
Criminal record checks and BS 7858: how the two actually relate
BS 7858 and a criminal record check are not the same thing, and assuming one covers the other is a common and avoidable confusion.
What actually happens when an SIA licence expires mid-contract
An expired licence is not an administrative problem. It is an officer who cannot lawfully do the job they are rostered on, discovered at the worst possible moment.