The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) has welcomed the publication of a new guide to help businesses prepare for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Entitled ‘London 2012 Games: Planning information for businesses’, the guide has been coordinated by the Cabinet Office with contributions from all organisations involved with delivering the Games, and provides useful hints and tips for businesses located near a Games venue or hotspot. Business continuity advice included in the guide incorporates the many challenges that businesses may face at Games time, from staffing...

“Too difficult to separate” was the outcome of the recent judging of this year’s Wilf Knight Award organised by the Security Institute. As a consequence two winners jointly celebrated receiving the Award in front of a packed house at the prestigious Security Excellence Awards at the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane on 19th October. Both Leonie Darbon (University of Leicester) and Matthew Mackmin (Cranfield University) received individual trophies and cheques for £500 presented by Patricia Knight and Institute Chairman Mike Bluestone. The winning entries were submitted by the respective cours...

Loomis UK Limited has demonstrated its commitment to reducing its environmental impacts by achieving carbon footprint certification with the Carbon Trust Footprinting Certification Company. Loomis UK Ltd, the Cash & Valuables in Transit service provider has announced it now carries the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Reduction Label. The Carbon Reduction Label shows that the Carbon Trust has certified the total greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of the service, including packaging, transportation and processing. By displaying the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Reduction Label on its Cash and Valua...

The search for the most innovative crime fighting project in England and Wales entered its final phase today as the public vote for the 2011 Tilley Awards went live. Sixteen projects are in the running following a nationwide search over the summer. The public vote will be hosted on the Home Office website and the winner will be announced in December. Home Office Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice Nick Herbert said: 'The Tilley Awards are recognised across the world for highlighting the very best of British crime fighting and this year is no exception. Today’s finalists ...

The Close Protection section of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) has elected Mike O’Neill as its new Chairman. A Chartered Security Professional, Mike was among the first group of individuals admitted to the Register, having served in the Parachute Regiment until 1990 before founding his own security company in 1993. Mike’s expertise covers a wide range of business risk services including crisis management, business continuity planning, investigations and close protection. Mike comments: “Close protection has experienced significant growth in recent years, and is exp...

Compass Group has announced today that it has acquired Integrated Cleaning Management Limited from Paul Rafferty and Coral Brodie. For the year ended 31 March 2011, ICM had revenues of £61.0m and gross assets of £16.3m writes Chris Lanchbury. ICM is one of the UK's largest independent specialist providers of core cleaning and related services. Established in 1996, ICM's 8,000 employees work on more than 3,800 client sites, providing a full range of cleaning services for more than 32 million sq. ft. of floorspace every day. ICM operates across the UK, with a particular focus on the corpor...

A free of charge conference and exhibition is launching in Surrey this November to help companies based in the South East understand the diverse security challenges they face in today’s ever-changing business climate. Organised by the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) in partnership with Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and Thames Valley Police forces, and in conjunction with the Federation of Small Businesses, the Business Crime Conference will take place on Wednesday 30th November 2011 at Sandown Park in Surrey. Chief Constable Mark Rowley of Surrey Police will formally open the...

The newly-rebranded Security Regulation Alliance, celebrated its one year anniversary by reinforcing its support for a new regulatory regime for the security industry at this week’s Security Industry Authority (SIA) Stakeholder Conference in Sheffield. A presentation made by Alliance Chairman, James Kelly, reflected on the progress made by the Alliance, alongside the SIA and government stakeholders, in determining a way forward for industry regulation since the Home Office’s initial announcement last October that the SIA was to be abolished as part of the government’s ‘Bonfire...

An independent review team charged with reviewing the UK’s extradition laws has today made its recommendations to the government. The arrangements – known as extradition – allow countries to make formal requests to each other for the return of suspects to stand trial for a crime in the same country it was committed. The review was announced by the Home Secretary in September last year to make sure that the UK’s extradition arrangements work efficiently and fairly. The panel is made up of three independent lawyers - Rt Hon Sir Scott Baker, a former Court of Appeal judge, David Perry ...

New research carried out on behalf of the Information Destruction (ID) Section of the BSIA (British Security Industry Association), to coincide with the Total Workplace Management event at London Olympia, underlines the fact that, despite the widely reported risks of data breaches and identity fraud, there remain serious gaps in how data disposal is handled by public and private sector organisations across the UK. One worrying statistic is that a third of organisations questioned are still relying on standard municipal waste disposal to deal with even the most sensitive of their informatio...