A licence lapses while someone is actually on shift: what to do
Most discussion of licence expiry treats it as something discovered after the fact — a check that should have happened before a shift was rostered and did not. There is a narrower and sharper version of the same problem: an officer whose licence is valid at the start of a night shift and expires while they are still on post, part way through it.
Why this is not the same as catching it late
This is not a failure to check beforehand — the check may have been done correctly, and the licence was genuinely valid when the shift started. The clock simply ran out during the shift itself, which is a live operational problem rather than a compliance record to fix retrospectively. See what actually happens when an SIA licence expires mid-contract for the broader consequences of an expired licence — the difference here is timing and urgency.
What needs to happen in the moment
- The officer should not continue licensable activity once the licence has lapsed, regardless of how far through the shift they are
- Cover needs to be found immediately, using the same urgency as any other no-show — see cover at 5am
- The client should be notified promptly, in line with whatever the contract requires for a change in cover
- The decision, timing and reasoning should be recorded, since this is exactly the sequence an assessment or investigation would want to see evidenced afterwards
None of this is comfortable to action at 2am on a site that needs to stay manned. It is, nonetheless, the sequence that protects both the client relationship and the contractor's own position, compared with the alternative of quietly letting the shift run out.
Preventing the scenario rather than only handling it
The genuinely preventable version of this is a licence that was always going to expire during a scheduled shift, which is knowable in advance if expiry dates are checked against the roster before publishing it, not only at the point someone is assigned. A licence expiring on a date that falls inside a scheduled shift is a flag worth raising during roster planning, not something to discover live.
Key takeaways
- A licence can be valid at shift start and lapse before the shift ends — check expiry against the full shift, not just the start time
- Once a licence lapses, licensable activity should stop, regardless of how far through the shift the officer is
- Immediate cover, prompt client notification and a written record are the three actions that matter most
- Cross-check expiry dates against scheduled shift end times during roster planning, not only at assignment
- Confirm current SIA guidance on how this scenario should be handled operationally
The SecureOptix team
Written by people who work daily with security contractors on SIA licensing, screening and the records that hold up under an inspection.