Market moves, providers, rates and recruitment across the security sector.
An applicant who supplied two forged character references pleaded guilty and was fined. One claimed to be from an employer he never worked for, the other from a doctor nobody on the medical register matched. Firms vetting operatives can run the same checks.
The SIA's October data sets, published on 22 October and drawn as at 1 October, show the number of licence holders down on both last month and last year, while close protection licences are up on a year ago. There are 714 approved contractors, 22 of them for close protection.
The SIA refreshed its Approved Contractor Scheme data on 13 October for the year to 30 September 2026, and the application page changed on 16 October. What the scores, fees and conditions mean for close protection firms and buyers.
A Contracts Finder notice published on 12 October names Mitie Security as the sole supplier for guarding and reception across Transport for London, running to July 2031. The notice also carries a second, lower contract value that it does not explain.
UK airport eGates will switch to contactless, face-based checks by early 2027, starting with British citizens at East Midlands. Passports must still be carried, and dual nationals should travel on a British passport or hold a Certificate of Entitlement.
From 5 October basic and standard DBS checks cost £20, enhanced checks £41 and the Update Service £15 a year in England and Wales. Security employers should check that screening providers pass the cut on.
The SIA has brought its Approved Contractor Scheme guidance into line with the £25 per licensable individual registration fee that took effect on 1 June, and updated the fixed fees for ACS passport schemes.
Concluded supply cases ended in costs orders, modest fines or a community order at magistrates' courts. The pending ones are at Crown Court, three brought against individuals under the Act's directors' liability section, with hearings listed into 2028.
The regulator's enforcement report, updated on 8 September with August figures, shows 56 open investigations at month end and 70 premises checked across nine operations.
Published SIA figures show 24,969 security licences revoked between January 2022 and August 2026, of which 22,526, about 90 percent, were pulled for having no right to work in the UK. Right-to-work revocations have climbed sharply year on year.
The Security Industry Authority has opened a public consultation, running from 28 August to 23 October 2026, on wide-ranging changes to the qualifications behind an SIA licence, including new training content, a security-specific first aid qualification, an added English-language test and a proposed post-licence standard in advanced physical intervention. It affects a workforce of over 450,000 licence-holders.
The SIA's overhaul of licence-linked qualifications reaches its final-specification stage this summer, with updated close protection standards set to become mandatory in 2027. For operators the planning window is now.
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The Security Industry Authority's latest enforcement report, updated on 7 August, shows 52 investigations open at the end of July, 13 written warnings, and six enforcement operations checking dozens of premises across the country.
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As venue operators prepare to register, the Security Industry Authority's business plan shows a regulator staffing up for the same spring 2027 deadline, with a dedicated team and budget, a new business approval scheme, and licence fees held flat.
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As new duties to protect public premises from terrorism come into force, Counter Terrorism Policing points buyers to a verified national register and an Ofqual-regulated Level 3 qualification. Worth knowing where you sit.
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The Home Office's latest quarterly figures show a 1,186% rise in terrorism-related arrests. Ninety-two percent trace to the Palestine Action proscription; the rest rose 1.7%.
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Announced on 13 July, £251m over three years runs through police forces in England and Wales to protect synagogues, schools and community centres. It lands against a SEVERE threat level and rising state-linked threats.
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With Bab el-Mandeb contested, the obvious relief valve is the Suez Canal. It does not fully work: the reroute roughly doubles voyage times and the largest crude carriers cannot use the canal at all.
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Hull war-risk premiums for Gulf transits are running at 3 to 10 per cent of a ship's value, up from a quarter of one per cent before the crisis. Cover is still available. The problem is safety, and roughly 6,000 seafarers remain trapped.
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Hull war-risk premiums for Hormuz have run from a quarter of a per cent to as much as ten. The market has repriced the whole region, and the human cost is thousands of crew trapped aboard.
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A major provider has launched a service extending executive protection to a principal's personal devices, home network and family. It is a marker for where the sector is heading: the exposure that gets a principal hurt increasingly starts online, not at the kerb.
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War-risk premiums for a Hormuz transit have moved from a spike to a standing cost, running at 3 to 10 per cent of hull value. On a large tanker that is millions of dollars for a single passage, and thousands of crew are stuck in the region while the market prices the risk.
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Marine underwriters are pricing a Hormuz transit at up to ten per cent of hull value. The IMO says stay out. Thousands of crew are still aboard vessels that cannot safely move.
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Marine war premiums have jumped sharply from the pre-war baseline, some underwriters are advising owners to pause, and the IMO puts about 6,000 seafarers trapped in the region.
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War-risk premiums for a Hormuz transit have surged again after a week of tanker attacks, running at 3 to 10 per cent of hull value. Around 6,000 seafarers are stranded in the region as the IMO works on evacuation.
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War-risk cover for a single Strait of Hormuz transit has reached ten to fourteen million dollars, per Lloyd's List. Insurers say cover is still there — the reason ships aren't sailing is the risk to crew, not the price.
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Spain meet Argentina at MetLife Stadium on Sunday to close the first 48-team World Cup. Organisers are warning of the longest security lines of the tournament, with huge fan zones across New York adding to the footprint.
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Crude is climbing as the war reaches the Gulf states and the Houthis threaten a second front at Bab el-Mandeb. Saudi Arabia has pushed most of its exports onto the Red Sea, and hull war-risk cover for a Hormuz transit sits near 5 per cent of ship value.
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With Kuwait and Bahrain now under direct attack, principal movement by air through the Gulf needs a fresh look. Kuwait's airspace has been closed to overflights since earlier this month, and European regulators are warning operators off Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. Gulf carriers are still flying, but the margin has narrowed.
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Hormuz hull war-risk premiums have hardened to around 5% of a ship's value — the new market norm — after this month's tanker attacks. Cover had briefly fallen to 2% under June's US-Iran deal. The IMO has told ships to stay out until crews can be kept safe.
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Hull war-risk premiums for Strait of Hormuz voyages are running at two to six percent of a ship's value, with underwriters quoting five percent as the realistic floor. Some are advising owners to pause transits — and demand is falling because owners have simply stopped sailing.
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Hull war-risk premiums for a Hormuz transit sit at 2-6% of a ship's value — up to $6m on a $100m tanker — but the sharper signal is that requests for quotes have dropped off as owners hold back from committing to transits. When the market stalls, the ships stop before the shooting does.
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Hull war-risk premiums for a Hormuz transit have hardened to around 5% of a vessel's value — roughly $5m on a $100m tanker, and up to 6% at the top of the market. The IMO's chief has publicly leaned on insurers. For anyone moving people or assets by sea, cover is now the gate, not the fuel price.
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Gulf war-risk premiums have jumped inside a week and underwriters are telling owners to hold. The commercial squeeze, not the missiles alone, is now the practical brake on Gulf movement.
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The 7-8 July summit turned the 5%-of-GDP pledge into more than $50bn of new procurement and €70bn in Ukraine support, while the leaders hardened their position on Iran. The broader-resilience spending is where the guarding and monitoring market gets pulled in.
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War-risk cover for Gulf transits climbed from 2% to 3% of hull value in a day after this week's tanker attacks, with some underwriters advising owners to hold off entirely. The market, not any government backstop, is the real gate on the strait reopening.
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The US doubled its maritime reinsurance facility to $40bn to keep ships moving through Hormuz — but it only covers escorted transits, and there've been none. War-risk premiums, not the backstop, remain the real gate on the strait.
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The alliance turned last year's 5% spending pledge into fresh defence orders, with an industry forum alongside. The broader-resilience slice of that spending is where the security market gets pulled in.
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Leaders meet today and tomorrow to turn last year's 5% pledge into contracts, with a defence-industry forum running alongside. The 1.5% 'broader security' slice is where the guarding and resilience market gets pulled in.
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The sector's largest listed player has set its direction for the rest of the decade: risk intelligence and advisory over manned hours, with a 10 per cent annual EPS growth target behind it.
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One of Britain's oldest monitored-alarm businesses changes hands: 160,000-plus residential customers, a heritage running to 1874, and another overseas consolidator buying into UK monitored security.
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Leaders meet in Ankara on 7-8 July with a Defence Industry Forum alongside. The 5% spending target set at The Hague is the backdrop, and 1.5% of it points straight at the security and resilience market.
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The 7-8 July Ankara summit gives 7 July over to the Defence Industry Forum, ahead of the leaders' meeting. With the 5%-of-GDP target now about delivery not headlines, the 1.5% ‘wider security’ slice is a standing demand signal for the private sector.
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Heads of state meet in Ankara on 7-8 July to turn last year's 5%-of-GDP defence pledge into delivery. The 1.5% 'wider security' slice, covering infrastructure, cyber and industrial resilience, is a direct demand signal for the private security sector.
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Leaders meet in Ankara on 7-8 July to put a credible path under last year's pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035 — 3.5% on core forces and 1.5% on wider security. That second slice is a structural demand signal for the protective and resilience industry.
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Cover for a single large-tanker transit of Hormuz now runs 3 to 8 percent of hull value — three to eight million dollars a trip, up from about a quarter of a percent before the war. Underwriters want weeks of confirmed calm before they move, and the mines may take months to clear.
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International SOS finds 47% of organisations rank geopolitical instability as their leading source of uncertainty. For the protective industry, that is the demand signal behind documented, defensible duty of care.
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The SIA's draft Buyer's Charter, out 24 June, pushes security buyers to score competence, fair pay and welfare over lowest price. If buyers adopt it, well-run firms win more work and the cut-price end gets squeezed.
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Marine war-risk rates are stuck at multiples of pre-crisis levels after the Gulf ceasefire frayed. For risk buyers, the premium curve is now a live read on the threat.
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Britain's sanctions enforcer handed a travel-tech firm a record £1m penalty for keeping a designated Russian airline plugged into its distribution system. For any risk or services business, indirect benefit is now an enforced standalone offence.
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Iran's second World Cup match — against Belgium at SoFi Stadium on Sunday — is the first tournament fixture involving a nation recently at war with the host. With a 200,000-strong, deeply divided Iranian diaspora in Southern California, the operator risk around the venue is crowd dynamics and protest friction, not a stadium-scale attack. The grey space outside the cordon is where teams earn their fee.
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With the tournament under way across three countries and a security operation costed above a billion dollars, the executive-protection market is busy. The practitioner consensus is that the principal's real exposure sits outside the hard perimeter, in hospitality, hotel lobbies and the walk to the vehicle, and that the modern threat is as much symbolic targeting as kidnap.
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The sector's largest player has bolted on an Ontario investigations firm to build a dedicated Canadian fraud-and-claims capability. For operators, the buyer landscape keeps narrowing.
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Disclosed S&P 500 security spending has roughly doubled in five years and over a third of the index now reports a security perk for executives. The demand side of the market is widening, which is where the work is.
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Capstone recorded 242 security-sector deals in 2025, up 24.1%, with PE add-ons driving almost half. For sole traders and small firms, the firms that hire you are increasingly owned by a handful of platforms.
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Deal volume jumped 24% in 2025 as private equity and large strategics buy up guarding, monitoring and AI-enabled physical security. For operators and small firms, the buyer landscape is narrowing.
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Protests turned violent outside the Azteca on opening day as more than 100,000 personnel deployed across Mexico's host cities. For event teams, the threat picture is political as much as criminal.
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DHS has pushed $625m to the 11 US host cities, but as reimbursement grants, and late. For providers, the tournament is a cash-flow exercise as much as a staffing one.
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Equilar's read of this year's S&P 500 filings puts median security spend at $130,000 — up a fifth in a year and more than double 2021. The money is moving, and it's changing how protection gets bought.
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Consolidation at the top end continues. The players, the rationale, the knock-on for operators.
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