Check if you need a licence at shopping centres or retail outlets
Find out how SIA licensing applies to shopping centres and retail outlets.
If you own or manage a shopping centre or retail outlet, some of your staff may need an SIA licence. You may also need an SIA licence yourself.
This page explains when you need a licence.
You should seek independent legal advice if you are still not sure whether you need a licence after reading this page.
When your staff need a front line licence
Your staff need a front line SIA licence if the work they will be doing is part of a ‘contract for services’ and involves a ‘licensable activity’.
A ‘contract for services’ is when you have a contract to supply their services to another organisation. An example of this would be where you employ someone to guard your shopping centre, and you charge the shops within it a fee for that person’s services.
A ‘licensable activity’ is a job that requires you to hold a licence before you can do it.
These are:
- Manned guarding, which includes:
- Cash and valuables in transit
- Close protection
- Door supervision
- Public space surveillance (CCTV)
- Security guarding
- Key holding
- Vehicle immobilisation
Licensed premises
Your staff will not usually need an SIA licence if they will be working ‘in-house’. This is when you employ them directly and you do not contract out their services to any other organisation.
However, they do need to have an SIA licence if they work in-house and their job involves manned guarding at a licensed premises (door supervision). ‘Licensed premises’ means a venue that has a licence to sell alcohol and/or provide regulated entertainment (for example, live music or film screenings).
This applies when the premises are open to the public, at times when alcohol is being supplied for consumption, or regulated entertainment is being provided, on the premises.
The local licensing authority will decide on what area is covered by the premises licence. The licence may cover a single establishment (such as a café) or an entire store or shopping centre.
When you need a non-front line licence as a director or manager
You need a non-front line licence if:
- you will not personally be doing the licensable activities described above, but will be managing or supervising people who will
- you are a director of a company, or partner of a firm, where any other directors, partners or employees perform licensable activities in their job
‘Director’ includes executive and non-executive directors, shadow directors, parent company directors, and corporate entities holding a directorship.