Data published by the Security Industry Authority shows it revoked 24,969 licences between 1 January 2022 and 2 August 2026. The single largest reason by a wide margin was no right to work in the UK, which accounted for 22,526 revocations, about 90 percent of the total. The figures were released on GOV.UK on 19 August 2026.
Right-to-work revocations have risen steeply across the period: 734 in 2022, 3,363 in 2023, 6,445 in 2024, 7,740 in 2025, and a further 4,244 in 2026 up to 2 August. Other reasons are much smaller by comparison, led by violent or abusive behaviour at 1,065, then sexual behaviour at 265, drug use or supply at 231, dishonesty offences at 162, and offensive weapons or firearms at 129. Categories with fewer than ten cases are suppressed in the published data.
For firms, the message is direct. A licence pulled for no right to work removes an operator from the roster with no notice and carries real contractual and reputational risk. Right-to-work verification at hire and at renewal is now the dominant compliance exposure in the sector. Build document checks into onboarding, re-check where a person's status can change, and treat right-to-work as a live risk to workforce availability rather than a one-off form at sign-up.
