Door staff to blame for SIA delays'

Home Office minister Hazel Blears has backed the Security Industry Authority (SIA) in its war of words with the trade by declaring that late and incorrect applications are to blame for delays in processing licences.

Blears wrote to All Party Parliamentary Beer Group chairman John Grogan in response to his letter to Home Secretary Charles Clarke prior to meeting with the SIA last week.

Blears said the "major cause of difficulties and delay in issuing licences is late applications and the high level of errors on forms and incorrect attachments" and that there was "no massive backlog" as claimed by the trade. She insisted that the SIA is "currently processing and issuing 80% of licences within the published timescale" of four to six weeks.

The letter states that the deadline of 11 April should be strictly adhered to and that "the SIA will not expect the police or local authorities to tolerate a situation where door supervisors continue to be unlicensed and make no effort at compliance".

The Home Office and SIA acknowledged that there have been early "teething problems" with the licensing process but that they had been "quickly corrected".

Bar Entertainment & Dance Association chief executive Jon Collins said: "By the end of the year we will have a fully operational supervised system but it is a question of how painful the next six months will be. We are largely now in the hands of police forces to show discretion where doorstaff have made a serious attempt to become registered."

Grogan is expected to write to Clarke again responding to last week's meeting with the SIA soon.