The Security Industry Authority has released the following update on the progress of their new licensing system.
“Since our new licensing application website was launched on 6th July, 46,815 individuals and 1,236 businesses have registered and set up their accounts. We have also issued 6,223 licences and 7,500 applications in our system are currently being processed.
“We know from the length of the service request queues, social media and other incoming messages that some people and businesses are frustrated at struggling to register and apply for licences on our new licensing system.
“Contingency teams from across the organisation are all helping with increased contact whether this be completing service requests, making licence decisions, or supporting our Internal Document Centre with incoming mail.
“Our ultimate aim is to stop the need for people to raise service requests, as we start to tweak the system and introduce fixes we are beginning to see a reduction in demand for some categories.
“In responding to service requests we are seeking to resolve them at first contact and reduce the volume of repeats (people contacting us more than once on the same issue) which currently make up about 30% of our in-box. We are also encouraging individuals to respond to our requests for information and follow the guidance we have given them so we can process their application.
“We are continuing to fix many of the early system glitches and our website is constantly updated with a range of guidance ‘Help and Guidance’ for individuals and ‘Help and Guidance’ for businesses.
“Our automated response to service requests advises senders that they will be contacted within 5-10 days and this is happening in the vast majority of cases.
“We are continually analysing and prioritising service requests and posting information on our website and social media helping individuals and businesses register, link and apply for licences.
“We understand and do appreciate that people are frustrated at the time it is taking us to resolve their issue. We have issued communications acknowledging the frustration and have apologised for the inconvenience that this has caused. We are working hard to resolve this and most people are now receiving a response within 10 days to their initial enquiry. Response times will get better and we thank people for their support and patience.
“We are already beginning to see benefits of the new system – for straightforward applications, once they are in our system, we are now seeing a processing time of around 10 days – a reduction of 3 days on average at the moment when compared to the ‘old’ licensing system”.