Significant activity to crack down on training malpractice
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-12)

An update from Pete Easterbrook, interim SIA Director of Inspections and Enforcement. Pete leads the SIA's drive against training malpractice.

We continue to push the boundaries of our remit to the limit with the activities we are undertaking. ​

We are determined to ensure poor practices are rooted out and support the majority who operate to good standards.

This update reflects the collaborative effort with the UK qualification regulators and the qualification awarding organisations to remove any training malpractice in the private security sector.

In the last three months we have:
- conducted 35 unannounced visits to training providers situated around the country – 12 of these as a direct result of information we received suggesting training malpractice had taken place
- collaborated with awarding organisations who withdrew their approval to deliver licence-linked qualifications from 5 training centres in response to reported malpractice and mismanagement
- issued 81 action points in total to a number of training providers where we have identified that improvement needs to take place
- met with chief executives from the 6 awarding organisations – we agreed new procedures to prevent training providers from switching awarding organisations after they have had sanctions put in place or approval withdrawn because of malpractice or mismanagement
- explored several new innovations in collaboration with the awarding organisations and Ofqual to combat training malpractice
- delivered a training package to all our regional investigators to ensure that they have the right resources to assist with any reports of malpractice in a timely, robust and effective manner
- conducted unannounced visits to training providers in Manchester with colleagues from the Public Protection Unit of the Home Office – these visits provided valuable insight for our sponsorship department into the important work we continue to deliver to improve quality and reduce training and examination malpractice in the sector
I would also like to highlight that at the end of April, acting on intelligence and working in conjunction with an awarding organisation, we carried out an unannounced visit at a training provider in East London. During the inspection we uncovered malpractice that led to the provider swiftly being suspended from delivering licence-linked qualifications. Our enquiries are still ongoing to discover the extent of the malpractice.

Where we have a suspicion that malpractice has taken place, we will not hesitate to take action.

This activity represents the effectiveness of a more streamlined and joined-up approach to tackle malpractice or mismanagement.

We all need to be confident that those who hold SIA licences receive the correct entry level qualification.

We will continue to provide updates on our progress as appropriate.

If you have concerns about a training provider, please do report your concerns: Find out how you report training malpractice (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-out-how-you-report-training-malpractice).

More information about the parties involved in delivering SIA licence-linked training is available from our Learn about SIA licence-linked training (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/learn-about-sia-licence-linked-training) page.