Home Office publishes Public Body Review of Security Industry Authority

The SIA, of course, is the regulator of the private security industry in the UK. The organisation plays an important role in supporting the Home Office’s priorities of reducing terrorism, preventing and tackling crime and improving public safety. The review has found the SIA to be a well-run organisation with a Board, Executive and staff “committed to improving public security”.

Increasing efficiency 

The SIA has challenged itself to increase efficiency and contain the cost of its operations. It has begun a “transformation journey” to modernise its systems and service delivery.

The SIA has also prioritised reducing the licence fee for its regulated community. Despite this ambition, historic factors have led to the accrual of a significant surplus, which the SIA is repaying through a rebate scheme applied to its current fees. The orgnisation aims to avoid increasing the fee once the rebate scheme comes to an end, but notes that recent increases in inflationary pressures and other challenges do create a level of risk.

However, the SIA is well placed to achieve at least 5% efficiency savings over three years by implementing the recommendations of this review. The organisation has identified (and is targeting) a total of 7.53% savings over three years. The 7.53% efficiency savings have not been fully evidenced on the information provided to the review.

The SIA now needs to develop a full and comprehensive plan to achieve these efficiency aspirations and implement them, rigorously monitoring delivery and enabling Home Office assurance of its progress.

Some of the efficiency savings, particularly so in digital and transformation, are partially dependent on capital funding by the Home Office. The availability of any such funding is decided annually based on a range of factors and cannot be guaranteed, particularly so in the current economic context of fiscal restraint. 

There is scope for the SIA to raise its level of ambition yet further in cost reductions. The report asks the SIA to modernise its approach towards workforce planning and better understand and articulate the relationship between its costs and outputs. In its transformation plans, the SIA must pursue further opportunities to increase the automation of its processes, seeking to integrate its transactional support functions and align them with those of the Home Office.

A prerequisite for efficiency at the SIA is clarity about the scope and purpose of the organisation and alignment of risk appetite with its sponsoring department. Such clarity would support the SIA to tighten its priorities for resource allocation, including further opportunities for reducing expenditure in favour of reducing the cost of licences.

The department must ensure that ministerial priorities are regularly set out in order to inform the SIA’s planning and resource allocation decisions and that those priorities are reflected in the SIA’s Key Performance Indicators.

Strong and positive relationships

There are “strong and positive relationships” between both components of sponsorship at the Home Office – policy and corporate – and into the department’s functional areas. The SIA needs to “progress at pace” towards a more modern way of operating and the Home Office is crucial to enabling this through sharing functional expertise.

The latter should include sharing expertise on digital and Artificial Intelligence challenges coupled with specialist advice to help the SIA improve the quality and scope of its planning and financial capability.

It should also include alignment of risk tolerance and risk methodology with the department, including open discussions about the risks presented to the department by the SIA, as well as the ways in which the SIA mitigates risks on the department’s behalf.

The public body reform agenda encourages Arm’s Length Bodies to look at Best Practice elsewhere and make sure those examples are being learned from and emulated where possible. The SIA is part of a broader ecosystem of public protection and active in outreach across its sector.

Public bodies are an important element of the conversation about potential threats and challenges over the next decade. The SIA should ensure that it’s considering its approach over the strategic horizon.

The recommendations of the review aim to ensure efficiency across the SIA from operational delivery through to functional support. They also aim to ensure consistency and collaboration with the department. “When implementing these recommendations,” suggests the report’s Executive Summary,  “the SIA and the Home Office must ensure they’re considered as a coherent package and sequenced appropriately.”

Of course, the SIA is an important delivery partner for Government. It performs a vital role in regulating the UK’s private security industry in order to protect and safeguard the public. The review agrees that the functions of the SIA should continue to be delivered by the regulator in its current form as a Non-Departmental Public Body, albeit with the efficiency recommendations and improvements outlined in this report.

Private security operatives should be proud of the work they do to protect the UK and should continue to work with the SIA as an expert and authoritative regulator that’s punching above its weight so as to encourage the highest standards in the profession.

Important component

Independent lead reviewer Cristina Bizzi stated: “The SIA welcomed the review as an opportunity to consider where improvements could be made. Like some other fee-funded public bodies, the SIA has typically been able to plan resource delegation on the basis of budgeted costs, resulting in a limited need to actively seek out efficiencies and cost reductions. The SIA now has the chance to explore further these unexploited efficiency opportunities.”

Bizzi continued: “During the review, I found a well-run organisation with a good reputation and one doing good work. The chair (Heather Baily QPM) and CEO (Michelle Russell), both of whom have been in post for less than four years, work closely together to develop the organisational culture and strengthen its impact on public security. They are ably supported by a team of senior executives.”

In addition, Bizzi said: “The SIA’s cultural shift, initiated by the chair and CEO, is moving the organisational focus more towards public safety. This has already delivered tangible results. Further work should be done to align the whole of the organisation with this shift.”

The review’s scope allowed Bizzi to assess the SIAs existing plans and to investigate where further areas of efficiency and cost reduction might be found. However, the review did not provide a mandate or timescales for running a full feasibility study or complete financial due diligence or to create new delivery plans for the organisation. “The recommendations therefore illustrate an efficiency journey, which builds on the foundation of the SIA’s current ambition,” observed Bizzi.

Also, Bizzi highlighted: “The review recommends exploring other opportunities in several different areas, including in the SIA’s relationship with the Home Office, which will ultimately support more efficient and effective working methods. It’s my opinion that the SIA can create a sustainable efficiency culture, which will deliver savings in the long-term, in addition to those it has already identified.” 

Bizzi recommends that the SIA remains in its existing form. “The SIA must remain focused on its role as a public body, established by the Home Office, run by public servants and funded by public money through fees. It must also continue to consider the broader context within which it operates as part of an ecosystem of public protection.”

Looking to the future, the SIA should “press forward” with the cultural and organisational changes begun by the chair and CEO. It needs to progress these at pace, going further and deeper where necessary, to ensure it can realise and sustain genuine efficiency savings over the long-term.

Response from the SIA 

The SIA has welcomed the publication of the Home Office public body review of the regulator. In a joint statement, Heather Baily and Michelle Russell explained: “The SIA embraced the review with a collaborative, open and transparent approach. We are pleased the review provides the necessary assurance to ministers and the public alike that the SIA is a well-run organisation doing good work.”

The statement continues: “The focus of this review was efficiency. The review process confirms the SIA has challenged itself to increase efficiency in order to contain the cost of its operations. The review also confirms the SIA is best placed in its current form to deliver the licensing of regulated security roles and the regulation of private security.”

Further, Baily and Russell confirm: “We are particularly pleased that the review acknowledges the work licensed security operatives do to protect the UK. The review encourages them to continue to work with the SIA as an expert and authoritative regulator that is punching above its weight to encourage the highest standards in the profession.”

The duo conclude: “We seek – and continue to benefit from – the support and co-operation of those working in the private security industry and our many partners to provide effective regulation and pursue robustly those who choose not to comply. We will work with the Home Office and the devolved Governments to implement the recommendations of this review.”

*The Home Office conducted the review process between August 2023 and March 2024

**Download and read the review in full online here: Security Industry Authority: Public Body Review 2025 - GOV.UK