The standard seeks to help providers of investigative services demonstrate their accountability at a time when the Government is implementing the Regulation and licensing of the Private Investigation Industry.

The independent assessment of our compliance with this standard focussed on the following key areas:
• Management Structure
• Finances
• Legal Compliance
• Code of Conduct
• Resourcing
• Training and Competence
• Client Instructions
• Conducting the Investigation

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) who will be licencing both individuals and companies involved in the provision of the investigative services recently updated their website to advise that:
“The Home Office” said the Government expects the introduction of the statutory licensing of Private Investigation activities to come into force as soon as possible during the next Parliamentary session, which starts in May 2015.

The SIA will continue to work with the Home Office, which has responsibility for introducing the regulation of the private investigation sector. In advance of the regulation date, we will engage with the security industry to update our 'Get Licensed' criteria, and we will continue to publicise widely further information about the proposed regulation of private investigations.”

Link:http://www.sia.homeoffice.gov.uk/Pages/licensing-private-investigations.aspx

Now that we have achieved the certification, combined with the fact that our staff have already obtained IQ Level 3 Award for Professional Investigators, we believe we are ideally placed to apply for individual licences for our Investigators and our business licence as soon as the application process commences.