An SIA licence is required if you undertake the licensable activities of a security guard and your services are supplied for the purposes of or in connection with any contract to a consumer.

Unless your employer or company has been given an exemption under Section 4(4) of the Private Security Industry Act 2001, it is a criminal offence to undertake the licensable activities of a security guard without an SIA licence. An exemption is applicable only where the company in question has been granted approved contractor status by the SIA and the other conditions of Section 4(4) have also been met. Every condition must be met for this section to be applied.

Cost of a Licence

The licence application fee is £245 for a three year licence. The fee is to cover the cost of processing your application and is not refundable.

If you pay your own licence fee you will be able to claim tax relief against your taxable income. For example, if you pay the basic rate of tax the relief is worth £53.90. If you are an employer paying the licence fee on behalf of an employee there will be no tax or National Insurance liability.

Some security operatives may need more than one licence; in such cases the second licence will be discounted by 50%. How does this work?

Licence Integration

In some cases, we are satisfied that the licensing criteria to be met for one licensable activity are sufficient to allow a licensed individual to carry out other licensable activities.

More information >>

Our 'Get Licensed' booklet (download size: 360kb) contains information about licensing for security guards. Changes from the previous edition are detailed here.