3 July 2008: Baroness Henig, Chairman of the Security Industry Authority (SIA) was one of the keynote speakers at the New Zealand Security Conference and Exhibition 2008 held in Auckland, NZ held last month.

Baroness Henig said:

"The New Zealand government is about to introduce new legislation covering the private security industry, which will create a special government enforcement agency and introduce mandatory training for those working in the designated security activities.

Their intention is to make the new regulations self-financing so there is considerable interest in how our licensing process had worked in the UK, what problems we experienced and the what impact regulation had made.

Delegates were particularly interested to hear about mandatory training qualifications and how partnerships between the police and private security providers had changed.

I had the opportunity to discuss many issues of mutual concern with security providers, senior police officers and government officials and found the exchange of views and experience extremely useful."