SIA is now developing licensing for private investigators

On 22nd March 2007, The Association of British Investigators met with representatives of the SIA to update them on the views of our members as the development of licensing is taken forward.

The SIA recapped on the work done to date and gave an overview of the subjects items open to consultation within the Home Office’s published Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA).

RIA

• The partial RIA consultation period is 12 weeks, with publication expected in late summer 2007. Options for licensing and the timescale for implementation will then be set out in a Full RIA.
• The partial RIA will set out a series of options for licensing ranging from ‘do nothing’ (and continue to allow the sector to self regulate) to introducing regulation with or without competency criteria.
• The partial RIA will set out proposals on licence scope (i.e. what is and isn’t licensable activity), probity, conditions and competency. All of these proposals are being considered in the context of the profile of the private investigation sector (i.e. the high proportion of sole practitioners and micro or small businesses in operation).

Licence Criteria

• The introduction of licensing would, as a minimum allow ‘fit and proper person’ checks (which includes identity, mental health and criminality checks).
• The RIA will consult on whether there is a need for competency criteria to be set, as has been done in other sectors where there is a ‘security response’. Headline competency proposals will be set out in the RIA.
• The SIA set competency criteria in consultation with the sector, training providers and awarding bodies and other stakeholders such as Skills for Security.

Precognition Agents

• Because of similarities in some of the activities undertaken by Precognition Agents, the SIA are considering licensing proposals for Precognition Agents in parallel with the development of licensing for Private Investigation. Further details on this will be posted on the SIA website in the coming weeks.

Compliance and Enforcement

• The SIA also outlined their compliance and enforcement strategy for licensed sectors. This set out the full reach including; partnerships with the Police, DWP, and HMRC. Over 200,000 individuals are now SIA licensed and 6,435 licences have been refused (the majority on the grounds of criminality).

The partial RIA will be published by the Home Office in late summer. The SIA encourages you to respond to this consultation paper and on the proposals within it when they are published.

Notes from Alison Wellens