The Security Industry Authority has refreshed the performance data on its Approved Contractor Scheme. The page was updated on 13 October with initial annual assessment scores for 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. The median score rises with company size, from 41 for firms with up to 10 licensable staff to 125 for those with over 250.
What the scores show
The SIA scores each contractor against 78 achievement indicators, with a maximum overall score of 145. The median initial annual assessment scores for the period are:
Up to 10 licensable staff: 41. 11 to 25 licensable staff: 62. 26 to 250 licensable staff: 82. Over 250 licensable staff: 125.
The SIA also lists the scores of its highest-scoring group, the top 5% of initial annual assessments, which run from 142 at the top down to 130. It warns that a score gives only an indication of overall quality and does not tell the whole story: a company can score low overall and still do well in one area, or score high and poorly in another. It recommends buyers also weigh reputation and the quality of the tender response, and consider the contractor's assessment report, which the SIA can pass on if the contractor agrees.
What the SIA says
The scheme is voluntary. The SIA says approved contractors may only sub-contract to other approved contractors unless it has given special permission. To qualify, a business must provide private security services in the UK under contract, have done so for at least 12 months, and supply at least 2 licensable operatives in each activity it is approved for. All directors and all deployed operatives must hold valid SIA licences. The SIA's application page also lists a condition, which the page history shows was added on 1 July, that the people deployed on regulated activity are employees or employees for tax purposes. The page was updated again on 16 October to fold the consultant-in-correspondence form into the ACS application forms and to rename the registration fee as an annual fee.
Costs are a one-off, non-refundable application fee of £400 for up to 10 licensable staff, £800 for 11 to 25, £1,600 for 26 to 250 and £2,400 for over 250, then an annual fee of £25 per licensable individual deployed, a rate that changed on 1 June 2026. The SIA works with three assessing bodies: British Assessment Bureau, NSI and SSAIB. A passport route exists through the NSI ACS Passport Scheme, which covers close protection among other activities.
What it means for operators
These are Ops Con planning points, not SIA guidance. If you buy or sub-contract close protection, a score is a prompt for questions rather than a ranking, and size matters when comparing: a firm with 15 staff is not behind a firm with 300 for scoring 62 rather than 125. If your own business is considering approval, price it per head, since the annual fee scales with deployed licensed staff. Firms that rely on self-employed operators should read the employee or employee-for-tax-purposes condition on the SIA page and take advice on how it applies to them, as this piece does not say how the SIA reads it in practice.
