Door staff sign petition to fight SIA licence hike
Hundreds of door staff have registered their anger at the 29% hike in door-staff licences by signing a petition that will be sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair.
To date, over 482 signatories have added their names to the petition, which calls for door staff licence fees to stay at £190, "until the SIA (Security Industry Authority) can offer rock-solid evidence of change within the industry or factual evidence of enforcement and compliance".
The petition has been submitted by Working the Doors, a group representing door staff. It follows last month's announcement that, from 6 April, fees are set to increase from £190 to £245, subject to approval from ministers.
The petition, available at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cannotpay/ says: "We the undersigned are opposed to a 29% rise in licence fees
to cover the inabilities of the SIA to be self-funded."
The huge number of signatures means that the Government will almost certainly have to respond.
Under the rules for "E-petitions", petitions with more than 100 signatures are "usually" passed to the PM's officials or the relevant Government department for a response.
However, this won't happen until after 19 January 2008, the petition's deadline.
This is the second petition against the price hikes - the first called for a judicial review into the SIA.
Meanwhile, Southampton doorman Andrew Lee has written to his local MP John Denham - a former Home Office minister - calling for an investigation into the rise.
Lee asked why there is such a "vast difference" between the projected licence fees - recommended at £22.61 in a Government report from 1999 - and the actual cost.
The increase will "reduce even further the numbers of door supervisors in the job and deter new people from wanting to enter the industry", Lee warned.
BEDA letter
The Bar Entertainment and Dance Association (BEDA), the trade body for the late-night sector, has criticised the "ludicrous" 29% hike in door staff licence fees in a letter to Home Office minister Vernon Coaker.
The letter, from BEDA's vice chair John Hayes, said the plan to increase fees by £55 to £245 from 6 April "is far too high a price hike and cannot be justified".
He blamed the Security Industry Authority (SIA) for processing 130,000 fewer applications than originally projected.
Hayes said the SIA's accommodation costs of nearly £750,000 a year "are far too high". He questioned why the group needed to be based in central London while its main partner, the Criminal Records Bureau, is based in Liverpool.
Hayes also questioned why the SIA spent nearly £4m over the last three years on advertising and publicity and criticised its "excessive" employment costs of around £15m over three years.
The letter also asked why the group must be self-financing "given the SIA has a hugely important function in helping to control disorder".
l Hundreds sign petition against SIA fee hikes, p10
l Letters, p18
