Private Security Authority

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 June 2012

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

Ceisteanna (638, 639)

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

641 Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will report on the number of employers and employees in the private security sector that have been detected by the Private Security Authority to be non-compliant with licensing requirements each year since the authority was established; the sanctions that have been imposed on non-compliant private security employers and employees; the number of checks carried out by the PSA each year on operators and employees in the sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26185/12]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Alan Shatter)

The Private Security Authority, established under the Private Security Services Act 2004, as amended, is the regulatory body with responsibility for regulating and licensing the private security industry in the State. The authority is an independent body under the aegis of my Department.

I am informed by the authority that, to date, there have been 44 successful criminal prosecutions in the courts and over 6,300 applications have been rejected or refused. The tables following set out enforcement statistics since 2008. Comparable figures for the years 2006 and 2007 are not available as the authority's enforcement policy was evolving as the licensing of the private security industry matured during the early years of licensing.

Contractor Enforcement Details 2008 — 2012 (to date)

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of Contractor Investigations	661	520	518	474	146
Number of Contractors no longer operating, as a result of the PSA’s enforcement work	132	173	134	106	16
Number of Contractor Licences Revoked	5	0	1	0	0
Number of Contractor Licences Suspended	8	1	2	3	0
Number of Contractor Licences issued with sanctions (e.g. warnings, cautions, etc)	49	23	73	58	38

Individual Enforcement Details 2008 — 2012 (to date)

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of Individual Investigations	25	350	544	419	101
Number of venues visited	519	679	850	940	398
Number of Individuals Inspected at venues	1,436	1,468	1,479	2,343	878
Compliance with wearing ID Badges	N/A	N/A	79%	91%	92.5%
Number of unlicensed individuals no longer working, as a result of PSA’s enforcement work	30	96	86	86	14
Number of Individual Licences Revoked	0	3	0	0	0
Number of Individual Licences Suspended	0	0	3	0	1
Number of Individual Licences issued with sanctions (e.g. warnings, cautions, etc.)	0	94	304	256	58

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

642 Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will report on his recent introduction of new regulations for the electronic security sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26186/12]

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Alan Shatter)

The Private Security Authority, established under the Private Security Services Act 2004, as amended, is an independent agency under the remit of my Department, responsible for the regulation and licensing of the private security industry. The licensing of installers of security equipment encompassing intruder alarm, CCTV and access control systems is one such activity covered by the 2004 legislation.

I recently consented to the making of regulations, by the PSA, to extend licensing to contractors providing security services installing CCTV and access control systems. In accordance with these regulations, from 1 October 2012, all existing contractors providing licensable CCTV and access control services must be in possession of the appropriate licence(s) or have an application lodged with the authority. The regulations also provide for the licensing of contractors who maintain intruder alarms systems.

As with other activities licensed by the authority, the validity of licenses will be based upon continued certified compliance with the required standards. The standard required for the access control sector is SR 40:2005 — an Irish Standard Recommendation for electronic security services. For CCTV, both the SR 40 standard and PSA 2006:12 are required, the latter being the Authority's requirements for CCTV installation. The Authority has also specified standards for contractors who maintain intruder alarms.

As a measure to alleviate the cost of the introduction of licensing to these new sectors, existing licensed intruder alarm installers will be able to add the CCTV and access control sectors to their existing licence at no additional cost. Furthermore, in terms of compliance costs, existing licence holders will be allowed to synchronise the timing of their standard certification audits for the new sectors with their existing intruder alarm auditing arrangements.

I am informed by the authority that the extension of its licensing to these sectors has been in preparation for a considerable time and has involved consultation with the industry stakeholders. This extension of licensing, as outlined, marks the completion of the authority's licensing for the electronic security sector.