FOI24/25 010 Security Industry Authority - SQA Roles & Responsibilities

Date published: 02/05/2024

Could you please provide me with the following information:

Q1. What are SQA roles and responsibilities in relation to Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence-linked training?

Q2. Who regulates Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence-linked training?

Q1. What are SQA roles and responsibilities in relation to Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence-linked training?

SQA’s Accreditation function is remitted by the SIA to accredit qualifications which enable candidates to apply for an SIA licence.

Q2. Who regulates Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence-linked training?

The following is taken from the SIA’s Get Training document, which is supplied to us to aid our regulation of the awarding bodies that we have that offer the qualifications. 

“Audit criteria

Training centres must allow the SIA/awarding organisations/qualification regulators (and anyone associated with them) to inspect/audit training, delivery, and assessment (including venues) at any time and without notice. The only exception to this may be some cash and valuables in transit (CViT) centres who have special protocols in place.

Each awarding organisation, as part of the process of gaining SIA endorsement, will have made commitments regarding their quality assurance processes. These include the commitment that every centre has a physical visit at least once per year to confirm that the venue is still fit for purpose.

We regularly review the quality assurance processes through a range of activities. These

include quarterly meetings with all awarding organisations, and twice-yearly quality meetings with individual awarding organisations.

Each awarding organisation will also monitor all training centres regularly as part of their

Ofqual/Scottish Qualification Authority/Qualification Wales /Council for Curriculum Education & Assessment. They will do this in accordance with the additional quality measures for both approvals and external quality assurance (EQA) agreed with us.

The awarding organisation can withdraw the approval of trainers and/or training centres if they do not comply with quality assurance processes, which include all the requirements in this document.”

Awarding bodies are required to comply with the SIA requirements as per the handbook. They must also meet our requirements. 

Below is a link to the SIA website as you may wish to contact them.

Security Industry Authority - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)