Abbey Petkar, managing director of Magenta Security has expressed deep concerns and disappointment in recent decisions by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).
“As children so many of us will have heard teachers say – I am not angry with you… I am disappointed. My feelings for the SIA are no different.
“Some months ago, I was excited and looking forward to impending improvements to the ACS. They were going to make us more professional as an industry; develop greater trust with customers and communities; cowboy firms would struggle to operate and all staff would be treated fairly by responsible employers.
“However, much like the many campaign promises falling from the lips of conservative party politicians hoping to replace Theresa May, the promises of the SIA were nothing more than words with little to no substance behind them.
“Going forward what changes have been made are only going to impact the 20% who are voluntarily undertaking the ACS. In fact, those of us acting truly professionally and making the extra effort to achieve ACS are going to be penalised as we are undercut by those who do nothing more than check their individual guards are licensed. Our costs are increasing whilst they simply don’t care. If we want to charge what we are truly worth, demonstrate our knowledge and stand shoulder to shoulder with other industries we need to be checked and certified at a company level and the ACS is the only vehicle to do that.
“The latest news from the SIA means only those doing the right thing in the first place are being policed. We already had an environment where the unprofessional firms had numerous advantages, now the rest of us are being actively disadvantaged. As an industry for example, we are looked on unfavourably by banks and credit providers who have seen companies phoenix time after time. The SIA had an opportunity to close loopholes – yet somehow their poor choices have created even more.
“We had an opportunity to be a shining example to the rest of the security world. It is an example that is slipping rapidly through our fingers if something isn’t urgently done to stop the rot.”