The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) welcomed HRH Prince Michael of Kent to its hugely successful Meet the Buyers event held at IFSEC. The royal guest visited the event in his role as Patron of the BSIA’s Export Council to gain an insight into the work of the Export Council and meet with some of the BSIA members and overseas buyers. Chris Pinder, BSIA Export Manager, comments: "We were delighted to welcome HRH Prince Michael of Kent to IFSEC this year. His presence and his role as our patron demonstrate the important contribution that UK security companies make to the British e...

Carlisle Security triumphed at this weeks IFSEC 2009 Awards with a clean sweep by winning in both the award categories for security guarding. The IFSEC Awards ceremony, hosted this year by John Sergeant of Strictly Come Dancing fame, saw Carlisle Security pull off a remarkable "double" in their first year of entering the competition; an achievement also making them the only entrant to win two awards.The work Carlisle Security does for Merseyrail Electrics was recognised by the first of the two awards: "Guarding Service Delivery to Customer".  Recognising as it does the very best pract...

Licensing requirements will not be extended to include in-house security guards, the Security Industry Authority announced today. An SIA review, involving wide consultation with the security industry, found insufficient substantiated evidence of risk or threat to the public to support in-house licensing. The assessment took into account that regulation should only be targeted where action is needed, and that regulation should only intervene where there is a clear case for public protection. Following detailed discussion with SIA Chairman Baroness Ruth Henig and SIA senior management the Home O...

A major new consultation has begun into plans to subject rogue wheel clamping businesses to tough new regulations, the Home Office announced today. The public consultation, which sets out proposals for licensing wheel clamping firms, will run for 12 weeks. It is an opportunity for members of the public and all interested groups including wheel clamping businesses and motoring organisations to have their say. The Government’s proposals include the introduction of compulsory licensing to tackle the limited number of wheel clamping businesses whose practices include excessive fines for releasi...

Security Industry Authority Chairman Ruth Henig has invited Andy Drane (SIA Director of Compliance and Enforcement) to take up the post of Acting Chief Executive. The recruitment process for a permanent Chief Executive is underway and an announcement will be made shortly. Previous SIA Chief Executive Bernard Herdan, who was appointed in November last year for an interim period of four to six months, took up a new post as Chief Executive of the National Fraud Strategic Authority on 1 April 2009. SIA Chairman Ruth Henig said: I would like to thank Bernard for successfully taking the SIA forward...

SectorGuard Plc, has through its 100% owned subsidiary Legion Services Limited acquired the contracts of Craft Services Group Limited (in administration) for a consideration of £99,000. The contracts with an annual value of £10m provide security and facilities services to shopping centres, property groups and commercial organisations. This addition further strengthens SectorGuard's market share within these sectors following quickly on from the Legion Group plc acquisition. Some 400 employees of Craft Services Group Limited have transferred (under TUPE conditions) over to Legion Group plc a...

G4S Events (‘G4S’), part of the UK’s leading security company G4S Secure Solutions (UK), successfully supplied security support for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to assist the Metropolitan Police (‘Met’) in the build-up to, and throughout, the recent G20 Summit of Heads of State, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on 2 April 2009.  The company was also employed by HM Treasury to assist Sussex Police secure the G20 Finance Ministers Conference which took place in mid-March in Horsham, West Sussex. Over 500 expert personnel from G4S’s specialist Events divisio...

A new survey conducted by Reliance Security Services and Storage Handling Distribution magazine in February 2009, suggests that more than three quarters of the warehousing and logistics sector believes that the current economic downturn will raise the level of crime affecting their businesses. The survey asked security managers and those with responsibility for security in logistics businesses across the UK, what their concerns were in the current environment, what provisions they already had in place and how these might change given the ongoing difficult trading circumstances.Key findings: E...

Rogue wheel clamping firms could soon find themselves subject to tough new regulations, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced today. The Home Office will look at proposals for introducing compulsory licensing to tackle the limited number of wheel clamping companies whose dodgy practices include: excessive penalties for releasing clamped cars; towing cars unreasonably quickly after being clamped; hidden, missing or confusing signs warning drivers that clamping takes place; and a lack of any appeals process for drivers. Currently, any individual undertaking wheel clamping must hold a frontl...

SectorGuard plc, a leading provider of total security solutions, has announced the completion of the Acquisition of Legion Group plc as announced by the Company on 11 March 2009. The Company is also pleased to announce that it has successfully raised £1.98 million via a Placing, as also outlined in the announcement on 11th March, the proceeds of which have been used to reduce the SectorGuard term debt on completion of the acquisition of Legion. Legion Group WebsiteSectorguard Website...