4 May 2007: The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has completed the first annual review of the Approved Contractor Scheme. The recommendations of the review and the Security Industry Authority (SIA) response can be found on the SIA website.

The OGC consulted widely with stakeholders from December 2006 to February 2007, and contributions were received from industry representatives, ACPO, Trade Press and ACS Assessing Bodies as well as suppliers of security services and more than 50 Approved Contractors.

Andrew Shephard, SIA Assistant Director of ACS said:

"OGC has conducted a thorough review of ACS conditions of approval and we welcome its report. We are pleased that, overall, the review found that ACS was on track, with genuine potential to raise standards in the future. We will implement a number of changes to ACS as a result of the review, including tightening up of the requirements for the Fast Track approval route"

A copy of the review can be found here.