Brian Sims honoured

Brian Sims, the Editor of CMP Information's flagship monthly security journal Security Management Today (SMT), has been presented with the prestigious Skills for Security National Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Security Business Sector.

This is an Award that individuals can neither apply for nor be nominated for, as the recipient is determined by the team at Skills for Security. According to Skills for Security, it is "an honour for the industry's unsung heroes who, perhaps unlike many other Award recipients, have no vested interest other than to lead the security industry forward into the future, altruistically and with true passion".

Skills for Security (the skills and standards setting body for the sector) was created out of what used to be SITO. As the national training and educational body, the organisation aims to work with employers and nominated Awarding Bodies including City & Guilds to raise skills levels, and provide a workforce that is highly trained and fit for purpose in line with Security Industry Authority regulation and licensing.

Brian, who has been Editor of SMT for six years, collected his award at yesterday's Skills for Security National Conference at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. The annual event was attended by 300 of the industry's foremost end users.

In his citation to the Conference delegates, Stefan Hay (Skills for Security's Business Development Director) commented: "Brian Sims is an outstanding individual who has adopted our industry as his own and who, through tireless effort and determination, has highlighted the need for and determinedly pursued the concept of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for security managers, directors and operational personnel ever since taking over at the helm of what he has made the private security industry's leading trade journal. Brian has been fully supportive of Security Industry Authority licensing, but has also challenged the decisions of the Regulator when appropriate.

He has consistently been first on the scene to report both honestly and transparently on every major initiative or event that has impacted on our industry during the past six years. He has given hundreds of hours to additional activities for The Security Institute, ASIS International's UK Chapter 208, the British Security Industry Association and our own organisation in pursuit of the furtherance of our sector and its many and varied practitioners. In 2006, Brian also launched the excellent Four Issues, One Voice Campaign, calling for the licensing of in-house operatives, equal representation on the SIA Board, fair charging within the Approved Contractor Scheme and the cutting of regulatory red tape. That Campaign is now under discussion at The Home Office. In addition, Brian has played an integral role on the Skills for Security CPD Sub-Committee that is currently devising a Register of Security Professionals, membership of which will depend on compulsory CPD activity determined by the Committee."