SIA door-staff minefield

I was surprised to read, in the report of a

recent conference on door supervision, a claim by one speaker that there were up to 20,000 unlicensed door staff still working in the industry.

Apart from the fact that a great deal of research would have been needed to come to that total, the impression given by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) was that they were on top of the problem, mainly because of the strong enforcement and inspection campaign funded by increased fees.

Of course, the SIA does not deal solely with door staff. Its remit now goes much wider, and it seems I am constantly picking up new Statutory Instruments advising me of this or that change in the exemptions and requirements. The schedules to the Security Industry Act are now beautifully convoluted with extra paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - as any good British Act should be!

I have always seen the main problem with this as being what is called in legal jargon "vicarious liability". Not everyone has to have door staff, but if it is made a condition of your licence, then they must be SIA licensed. The onus for ensuring this rests with you.

This appears to be the case, even if you use an agency to obtain them, according to one recent pronouncement. I should have thought that it was up to the agency only to employ licensed staff, as they are required by law to do. As long as you insist and confirm this with the agency management, it seems to me you are discharging your liability. If the agency slips up, there is clearly a direct offence by them.

But the SIA sees it differently. They think it is reasonable to expect you as the contractor to check on the licences of every agency doorman who arrives for a shift. Clearly, if you are paying them direct and the agency is merely finding employees for you, then you are responsible for carrying out adequate checks and could be directly charged if you did not. But where you have an arrangement for them to deal with outside manning and supervise it, then you may escape direct responsibility if you are careful.

It is an area fraught with difficulty, especially as some licensing authorities seem to think that slapping a door-staff condition on a licence is a reasonable step if two or three drinkers are caught standing outside for a while. It's about proportionality again!