Yesterday [21 August], two security directors and their security company were found guilty at Exeter Magistrate’s Court of offences against the Private Security Industry Act 2001. Altin Laska, 26, and Jetmir Luli, 29, ran security company Night Owl (Exeter) Security Ltd and were sub-contracted to provide security guards to energy supplier EDF. Following an investigation by the Security Industry Authority, the directors were asked to provide information about individuals they had supplied to EDF. Both Laska and Luli failed to provide all the information requested by the SIA. Another indivi...

Following the British Security Industry Association’s AGM, Elmdene Ltd’s Managing Director, Ian Moore, has been appointed Chairman of the Association’s dedicated Export Council. With an export career spanning 20 years, Ian has made a positive contribution to the international growth of a number of businesses cross-nationally; working in the UK, Taiwan, Dubai and Libya. As Managing Director at Elmdene, a large-scale manufacturer of electronic products, Ian has in-depth experience exporting worldwide. Most notably to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Nordics, South Africa and the Middle Ea...

To help ensure the safety and security of local residents and delegates the NATO Summit Wales 2014 will see one of the UK’s largest-ever policing deployments. The policing operation, which will be focused in the Gwent and South Wales Police areas, will involve some 9,000 officers who will be drawn from police forces across the UK. Planning for the policing operation has been ongoing since the Summit venue was announced in October 2013. However it is only now as security fencing begins to be erected that the public may become aware of the sheer scale of the security operation. Security f...

The number of Security Industry Authority licence qualifications that have been issued now exceeds 1.25 million. Since 2003, in partnership with the industry, the SIA developed the Level 2 and 3 qualifications for security personnel across seven sectors. These qualifications are nationally recognised and governed by the relevant regulatory authorities in the UK. For many individuals an SIA licence-linked qualification is their first recognised qualification and is often a stepping-stone to a defined career in security. Currently, the SIA is reviewing and updating the training specification ...

Newly-elected Chairman of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), Pauline Norstrom, has marked her appointment with a focus on raising stakeholders’ awareness of the value of quality and innovation over price. In her inaugural address to BSIA members and industry stakeholders, delivered at the Association’s Annual Luncheon earlier this month, Pauline outlined her goals for her two-year tenure as Chair, citing economic recovery and international demand for UK products and services as key drivers of industry growth. Speaking to a packed auditorium at London's Hilton on Park La...

Continued partnership working between Police and private security firms has helped forces across the country reduce costs in the face of public sector budget cuts. In a report published earlier this week by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), police forces’ response to budget cuts were praised, while concerns have been raised around the impact on neighbourhood policing. Responding to this report, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) – the trade body representing the UK’s private security industry – is reinforcing the important role played by security firms...

The British Security Industry Association’s membership has triumphed in this year’s Infologue.com Building The Future Award, which was presented at London’s Hilton Hotel, Park Lane on Wednesday 16 July. Brian Sims and Bobby Logue report. Back in 2003, Interconnective Ltd (publisher of the security and counter-terrorism focused news and opinion portal www.infologue.com) devised and sponsored the inaugural Building The Future Award. On an annual basis, this accolade is bestowed upon the individual or organisation deemed by previous winners still active in the security world to have used ...

On Tuesday [15 July], at Rotherham Magistrates' Court, two security company directors pleaded guilty to a total of 38 private security offences. Using security company names Dragon Security Solutions and Goodfellas Nightspot Barnsley, the two directors supplied unlicensed security guards to unsuspecting customers in South Yorkshire over a nine month period. The unlicensed security operatives were not trained or vetted, and could have posed a threat to the very customers they were supposed to be protecting. Ian Lindsay, 48, of Market Street, Rotherham, pleaded guilty to: 3 charges of failin...

The Association of Security Consultants (ASC) has made its annual awards under the Imbert Prize with support and sponsorship from Samsung Techwin. Speeches during the ceremony attended by 80 members and guests at the Royal Air Force Club, London, included an address by Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Vice Chief of Defence Staff, on the current state of world security. The Imbert Prize underlines the Association’s mission to encourage the advancement of risk and security management in the UK. It is named after Lord Peter Imbert of New Romsey, former Commissioner of the Metropoli...

Security Industry Authority investigators launched a simultaneous operation across Birmingham and London on Thursday [26 June]. The operation was conducted to check the security licences of door supervisors and security guards working across 29 venues in the two cities. In Birmingham 56 security guards were checked at venues including: building sites, retail shops, a railway station, the airport and a museum. Of those checked one individual was found working without an SIA licence. Enquiries are on-going. In central London, 57 door supervisors were checked in pubs, bars and clubs...