Details of the SIA's role as a specialist reporting agency
Published 26 February 2025
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Request
I wish to request information using FOI legislation about your role as a specialist reporting agency. Please note that I asked the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in a separate FOI request to explain what specific powers specialist reporting agencies (SRAs) have, and its response said it “would be a matter for each specialist reporting agency to comment upon any powers bestowed upon them”. COPFS added: “Any agency or organisation which has investigatory powers is bestowed with those powers through primary or secondary legislation.”
Question 1
Can you explain what powers you have as a specialist reporting agency (SRA) and how those powers were bestowed upon you?
Question 2
COPFS said it had received 46 reports from you since 2020 and they were categorised as “community and public order offences”, so can you expand on this please and explain what the alleged crimes or incidents were that you investigated and reported?
Question 3
Who undertakes investigations for you as an SRA?
Question 4
Have you received any complaints over your role as an SRA? If so, what were these complaints about please and were they upheld?
Question 5
Have you reviewed your procedures as an SRA in light of the Post Office and Horizon scandal and, if so, what changes have been made, if any?
Response
The SIA does hold this information.
Question 1
The SIA’s powers are set out in section 19 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 (PSIA). Section 19 confer powers of entry, inspection, and the production of documentation onto regional and criminal investigators. The PSIA (Commencement No.1) (Scotland) Order 2006 was made by the Scottish Ministers and brought the remit of the SIA into Scotland for relevant provisions of the PSIA which included section 19 and came into force on 6 July 2006.
Question 2
The crimes that were investigated and reported to COFPS related to offences under the PSIA, namely:
- Section 3 PSIA – working without possession of a valid SIA licence
- Section 9 PSIA – contravention of licence conditions
- Section 5 PSIA – deployment of unlicensed security operatives
- Section 16 PSIA – holding oneself out to be an approved contractor of security industry services, when they are not
- Section 19 PSIA – failure to respond to a statutory request for information without reasonable excuse
Question 3
The SIA has a Compliance and Inspections department which consists of regional investigators who are authorised to undertake investigations in respect of PSIA compliance matters. The SIA also has a Criminal Investigations department which is authorised to undertake investigations in respect of criminal allegations.
Question 4
The SIA has not received any complaints about our role as a special reporting agency.
Question 5
The SIA has not conducted a review of its procedures as an SRA in light of the Post Office and Horizon scandal. There have been no changes to how offences are investigated and then referred to the COFPS for prosecution in Scotland. All prosecutions in Scotland are undertaken on our behalf by the COPFS.
[Ref: FOI 0543]