surveillance and the sia

[wayne9228]

hi im about to do, the task international's Surveillance and intelligence operators course, and im wondering do i need an sia license, to work in the industry,and how do i go about getting one. cheers

[littlewoman]

The sia are going to be licensing Private Investigators and the requirements are due to be published in the week or so. I did have a brief chat with the bloke that was writing the requirements about the sort of Surveillance and intelligence gathering that is part of CP work and told him to make sure that either the PI requirements wouldn't cover that or that the legislation would make sure the the CP badge covered that work. I told him to talk to the CP companies about it.
So it will be worth taking a close look at the PI stuff when it comes out.

[hippy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlewoman The sia are going to be licensing Private Investigators and the requirements are due to be published in the week or so. I did have a brief chat with the bloke that was writing the requirements about the sort of surveillance and intelligence gathering that is part of CP work and told him to make sure that either the PI requirements wouldn't cover that or that the legislation would make sure the the CP badge covered that work. I told him to talk to the CP companies about it. So it will be worth taking a close look at the PI stuff when it comes out.

The whole PI licencing has been from the first mention off it a total b#lls up....

sia are unable to tell me if I require the licence or not... I ask the question on a monthly basis eagerly awaiting some new information, only to be told "We refer you to our website"

Oh goody, but your bloody website doesn't tell me what ineed to know!!! hence my phone calls and e mails you muppet!!!!

Apologies for rant!!!

[littlewoman]

The Home Office will now not release their decision on whether or not the PI industry will be licensed until 24th Feb at earliest.
At the moment, Hippy, you do not need a licence to be a PI. Whether or not you will need one in the future will be decided by the Home Office hopefully in the next month.

[hippy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlewoman The Home Office will now not release their decision on whether or not the PI industry will be licensed until 24th Feb at earliest. At the moment, Hippy, you do not need a licence to be a PI. Whether or not you will need one in the future will be decided by the Home Office hopefully in the next month.

Little, I am fully aware I do not currently need one, however I find it most frustrating that I simply wish to find out if I will need one, once it becomes a licensable activity but all the sia are unable to decide if I shall... To constantly reply "We refer you to our website" is not an answer. Its a cop out...

Do I have to suspend half my work when the licence comes on line? Well, my board will just love that!

[littlewoman]

Hippy,
I fully understand your frustration. The sia respond to every query by referring people to their website, they don't actually answer any queries at all. Their enquiry system is a complete joke.
As for the PI licensing the SIA don't know because the decision is at the home office. I would think that when it does come in there would be quite a long period between the decision being made and the license being implemented. They're are still snowed under with too much work from Scotland and the immigrant issue to take on anything else right now.
If your query is going to be along the lines of what specific tasks are going to be licensed, I have a sneaky feeling that you're going to find it hard to get an answer. As we've found with other sectors the SIA don't seem to define sectors very well in terms of actual tasks, they prefer to go for a vague but nice sounding sentence or two that roles off the tongue nicely.

[hippy]

Not specific task... Thats fairly well nailed on I think.. But the question is on the basis of my employment....

[yankee]

hello,
THe sia have already released a docoument entilted PI best practice this sets out who and what will be covered. this consists of 5 areas. One of these is surveillance. THe PI licence Will come in without a doubt. And im sure we will all enjoy the mayham it brings.

[isstraining]

Wayne,

Go to the private investigators section in this forum, look at the last postings re' the SIA.

Regards

Peter
ISS Training Ltd

[Miles Overton]

I always thought that getting the sia involved was crazy even though it was obviously going to happen and be regulated. Sometimes working as a PI involves bending the laws, bugging cars and property is completely illegal without a warrant or permission from the owner and the line between stalking and Surveillance is very thin too. It will be interesting to see what the SIA does, it will certainly make it much harder to do ones job if introduced.