The Home Office updated its list of accredited explosives detection dog teams on 16 October. The list holds 102 dog and handler teams accredited under the National Canine Training and Accreditation Scheme for the Private Security Industry (NCTAS-P). Of those, 21 carry accreditation expiry dates in 2026, and two of them fall in October.
What the Home Office publishes
The Home Office describes NCTAS-P as a scheme to give the operators of sites that buy explosives detection dog services confidence in their quality, through accreditation of each team, meaning a specific dog and handler pairing. It was developed jointly by the Home Office, Counter Terrorism Policing and the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), and supports the government's CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy. The Home Office states that NCTAS-P is a voluntary scheme.
The page's change history records 16 updates to the list in 2026 so far. Every note says only that the list was updated.
What the list shows
These figures are Ops Con counts from the CSV attached to the page, as read on 19 October.
The list has 102 teams across 40 supplier names. By membership type, 76 are listed as company, 25 as individual and one as sole trader. The five largest suppliers hold 56 teams between them, and the largest holds 21.
Accreditation expiry dates run from 21 October 2026 to 7 October 2027. In all, 21 teams expire in 2026 and 81 in 2027. Forty-nine expire before 1 April 2027.
What the list does not say
The Home Office does not say what changed on 16 October, so this post cannot say which teams were added or removed. The list carries no inspection results or performance data. Because the scheme is voluntary, a dog team missing from the list is not a finding about its quality.
The CSV also contains handler identifiers and contact details. They are not reproduced here.
What it means for operators
These are Ops Con planning points, not Home Office guidance.
Match the expiry date to the contract term. A team that lapses mid-contract needs a replacement or a renewal confirmed in writing. With 21 teams expiring in 2026, this is a live issue this quarter.
Accreditation attaches to a pairing. If a supplier swaps the handler or the dog, check that the new pairing is itself on the list.
Check the live list on the day of tasking, not a saved copy. It changed 16 times this year, and the file you were sent last month may be out of date.
