Euro directive could lead to lower security standards

The association has responded to the European Commission's proposal for a Directive on 'Services in the Internal Market' by voicing concern about the potential consequences of the proposal with regard to private security services.

The Directive covers the authorisation needed for companies to provide services in EU countries and the standards to which they must adhere. If approved, the Directive will cover a broad range of services representing 50 per cent of the economic activity and 60 per cent of the jobs in the EU including security services, healthcare, construction and IT.

Public security jeopardised
Stephen Adams, BSIA Marketing and Export Services Director, said: “There are two major faults in the proposed directive. Firstly, the 'country of origin principle' states that once a service provider is operating legally in one Member State, it can market its services in other Member States without having to comply with further rules in the 'host' country.

“It is our strong belief that this would cause a risk of abuses of competition in the private security industry and would encourage security service providers to move their headquarters to the EU Member States with the lowest requirements. The authorities in countries with higher standards would then be under pressure to lower their standards, jeopardising public security.

“Secondly, there is a distinct inconsistency within the proposal resulting in a situation where a private security company that wants to establish itself in the UK must ask for authorisation, whereas a company established in another Member State would be allowed to provide such services in the UK without any authorisation.”

In its response to the consultation, the BSIA has called for the relevant European and national authorities to conduct a more detailed and extended assessment of the impact of the draft Directive on the whole of the European private security industry. Ultimately, the Association would like the security industry to be included in those sectors that are exempt from the Directive.

Added Adams “The BSIA strongly resists the introduction of the draft Directive and supports the view of CoESS (Confederation of European Security Services) that the Directive seriously jeopardises the European private security industry as a whole.

“Our belief is that the issues of safety and security far outweigh the benefits of reducing the amount of legislation for businesses.

We will lobby authorities
“In conjunction with other European and UK bodies including the Security Institute, the Security Industry Authority and the trade unions, we will continue to lobby the relevant authorities to ensure that the right and proper conclusion is reached.”

Earlier this year at the IFSEC Awards Dinner, BSIA Chief Executive David Dickinson, said he was concerned about the Directive which “threatens to provide the opportunity for ‘self employed’ or ‘temporary’ overseas workers to come to the UK to offer services such as security in accordance with regulations – if there are any – in their home nation and not those of the UK”. He added the Directive “in its current format is a major threat to what we are all trying to achieve with standards in the industry and could create a bypass of regulation...”

* CoESS, a European umbrella organisation for national private security associations, aims to defend the interests of the organisations and national companies that provide security services and to represent them.

* At the BSIA’s Annual Lunch,Hazel Blears MP, Minister of State for Crime Reduction, said “While the principles of the Directive appear to be broadly beneficial, there are, as with any draft document, areas that will be subject to re-drafting and fine tuning as it develops.”

The Home Office is closely monitoring its progress, she said. “It is not possible to anticipate at this stage how the consultation will progress, but it is important that any concerns on its content as well as identification of those positive areas are aired in the appropriate arenas, and this we will do.”