“Concerted action” to root out training malpractice in the private security industry

An update from Paul Fullwood, SIA Director of Inspections and Enforcement. Paul is leading the SIA’s drive against training malpractice.

He said:

“Tackling training malpractice, fraud and criminality is so important for the UK private security industry and public safety.

“We all need to be confident that those who hold SIA licences receive the correct qualification. Anything less undermines the reputation of many across the private security industry delivering an excellent level of service 24/7.

“We have been working closely with Ofqual and the awarding organisations as we strive to make this a hostile environment for those who seek to undermine the integrity of SIA licence-linked qualifications.”

Since setting out our range of measures to root out security training malpractice, the SIA has:

• visited 22 training centres around the country – 14 of these as a direct result of information we received suggesting training malpractice had taken place
• withdrawn approval to deliver licence-linked qualifications from 19 training centres in response to reported malpractice
• issued 36 action points to various training centres where we have identified that improvement needs to take place
• continued to investigate individuals and training centres where training malpractice, fraud and criminality is alleged to have taken place
• signed an information-sharing agreement with Ofqual so we can better protect the integrity of SIA licence-linked qualifications
• strengthened our intelligence-sharing with awarding organisations and improved our ability to respond to the intelligence we receive

Mr Fullwood continued:

“This activity demonstrates our dedication to root out any training malpractice in the private security sector.

“We are committed to work in collaboration with Ofqual and awarding organisations to reduce the gaps and vulnerabilities which allow training malpractice, fraud and criminality to occur. We cannot do this alone. A concerted effort from all parties involved working together to share information and best practice is vital to tackling this issue.

“I recently attended a summit held by exam regulator Ofqual to bring together industry leaders to agree new measures to continue to fight fraud in qualifications. We welcome their package of measures to strengthen steps to find, tackle and prevent qualification fraud.

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