In Dubai, putting your own team on the doors of a concert is an offence. Security at a public event can only be provided by a company licensed by the Security Industry Regulatory Agency (SIRA). Every individual guard needs a valid card, and the event needs its own security permit, separate from the event licence. An organiser who overlooks this has its own line in the penalties table: 15,000 dirhams for a first offence.
This guide covers what is required in Dubai on one side, and in Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates on the other, with links to the official texts where we use them. Medical provision and capacity limits are covered separately, in how many ambulances an event needs in the UAE. Permits and VAT are covered in selling tickets in the United Arab Emirates.
Who regulates private event security in the UAE?
There are two separate systems, under two separate laws. Dubai has had its own regulator since Law No. 12 of 2016, which regulates the security industry in the emirate and creates SIRA. Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates are governed by federal legislation, Federal Law No. 37 of 2006 on private security companies, which is applied by the Private Security Business Department (PSBD) of Abu Dhabi Police.
| Emirate | Regulator | Primary legislation | Implementing document |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai | SIRA | Law No. 12 of 2016 | Resolution No. 1 of 2018 (bylaw) |
| Dubai | SIRA | Law No. 12 of 2016 | Administrative Resolution No. 13 of 2025 (manual) |
| Abu Dhabi | PSBD – Abu Dhabi Police | Federal Law No. 37 of 2006 | Ministerial Decision No. 557 of 2008 |
| Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain | PSBD – Abu Dhabi Police | Federal Law No. 37 of 2006 | Ministerial Decision No. 557 of 2008 |
The scope of Dubai's law leaves no gaps. It applies across the whole emirate, including special development zones and free zones such as the Dubai International Financial Centre. A venue being in a free zone changes nothing, just as with access control and the event licence.
The law defines "Public Event" broadly: "Ceremonies, meetings, or shows that are open to the general public or to which the general public or a particular segment of the public is invited". The definition covers celebrations, festivals, competitions and races. A ticketed festival, an invitation-only awards ceremony and a mass-participation race all fall within it.
Can an organiser put its own staff on the doors?
Not in Dubai. Article 17 of Law No. 12 of 2016 is explicit: "No Person may provide Security Services in the Emirate without first obtaining a Licence". The bylaw then applies this to events. Article 25.1 of Resolution No. 1 of 2018, signed by Talal Humaid Belhoul, chairman of SIRA's board of directors, on 12 July 2018, states that "the guarding services required to ensure security of the Public Event and visitor entry and exit organisation services must be provided by a Security Service Provider licensed by SIRA".
Read it carefully: it is not only guarding. It also covers "visitor entry and exit organisation services", that is, managing how the public enters and leaves. The steward who organises the access queue is not a neutral role in Dubai.
Article 3 of the bylaw divides licences into 23 activities for companies and 16 for individuals. The one that matters to a promoter is "Event Security and Personal Guarding": the company you hire must have it on its commercial licence. Among the individual licences is the "Event Security Organiser", which Article 13.15 defines as "a natural person engaged by a Security Service Provider to organise and protect Public Events against any criminal or sabotage activities".
Everyone who works on site in that role needs a SIRA card. Article 14 requires medical fitness, the age set by SIRA and passing "the theoretical and practical tests accredited by SIRA". Article 15 lists the documentation: CV and two passport-size photos, certificate of good conduct, passport, Emirates ID or residence visa, a medical fitness certificate issued by a centre recognised in the emirate, and attested qualifications. Article 16 sets the validity of an individual licence at "two (2) years, renewable for the same period". Article 19 requires the card to be "conspicuously display[ed]" during service, the prescribed uniform to be worn, and no one to work for two providers at once.
What is the SIRA event security permit and when is it needed?
It is an event-specific procedure, separate from the company's licence. SIRA's Event Security Permits service page describes it as applying to parties, meetings, public shows "or any gatherings to which the public or specific groups are invited". It is applied for by the security provider, not the promoter, but it is the promoter who is left without an event if it is not in place.
What SIRA asks for, according to that page:
- Event permit application form.
- A commercial licence that includes the activity "Event Security and Personal Guarding".
- A list of the names of the guards who will provide the service.
- A security plan if 100 or more guards are used.
- The name, place and date of the event in the email subject line, sent to
event@sira.gov.ae.
The stated processing time is two working days. There are also two warnings worth raising in the briefing with the provider, because both end in a fine: "a fine will be imposed if approval is not obtained prior to the event" and "a fine will be imposed if there are additional names on-site that were not included in the submitted list". Adding three extra guards on the afternoon of the event without putting them on the list is an offence. Any change or cancellation must be notified immediately.
The 100-guard threshold is the only staffing number SIRA publishes, and it is not a staffing requirement: it is the point at which the operation needs a written plan. A mid-sized festival can cross it without noticing.
How many guards does an event in Dubai need?
As many as the approved plan says, because SIRA does not publish a per-attendee ratio. Article 24.a of the bylaw refers to another document: "Public Events must satisfy the security requirements and comply with the programmes, systems, and general and special technical specifications prescribed in the Preventive System Manual". That manual, approved in 2025, regulates venues and systems, not the number of personnel per thousand people.
What does exist is a penalty for falling short. SIRA's violations table includes "failure to provide adequate security guards", at 5,000 dirhams for a first offence and up to 14,000 for a fourth. What counts as "adequate" is decided by the authority when it reviews the operation, not by a public formula.
For a sense of the scale of a deployment in the emirate, there is official data for one specific night. The Dubai Media Office reported on 26 December 2025 that the Events Security Committee, chaired by Major General Saif Muhair Al Mazrouei, deployed 9,884 police officers, 1,625 patrols, more than 1,754 firefighters, 236 ambulance points and 635 paramedics across 40 locations for New Year's Eve 2026, coordinating 55 public, semi-public and private entities. That is 247 officers per location on average; the calculation is ours, based on the published figures, and it is the public floor, not the ceiling, because the private security hired by each organiser comes on top.
What we could not verify
Provider websites circulate a ratio of one guard per 50 or 100 attendees and, for Abu Dhabi, a mandatory security plan from 500 attendees, submitted four weeks in advance. We have not found either figure in an official UAE source, so we do not take them as given. The Preventive Systems Manual does not publish staffing levels by capacity either. The reliable route is to ask the licensed provider in writing and have the deployment recorded in the plan that is submitted.
What are the fines if event security falls short?
There are two scales, and they add up. The general one is in Article 21 of Law No. 12 of 2016: fines of between 10,000 and 500,000 dirhams, doubled if the offence is repeated within the same year, up to a cap of 1,000,000. The specific offences and their amounts are set by a resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council.
The scale actually applied is the violations table published by SIRA, in dirhams and by repeat offence:
| Violation | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organiser's failure to meet the event's security requirements | 15,000 | 30,000 | 30,000 | 30,000 |
| Provider's non-compliance at events and celebrations | 4,000 | 6,000 | 8,000 | 16,000 |
| Failure to provide enough guards | 5,000 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 14,000 |
| Carrying out a security activity without a licence | 6,000 | 12,000 | 18,000 | 30,000 |
| Employing an unlicensed person for security work | 3,000 | 6,000 | 9,000 | 18,000 |
| Failure to carry or display the licence during service | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 6,000 |
| Failure to use the security systems required by the authority | 4,000 | 8,000 | 12,000 | 24,000 |
Two readings of that table, which are ours and not SIRA's claims. First: the published administrative ceiling, 30,000 dirhams, is 6% of the 500,000 maximum allowed by Article 21 of the law, so the legal range leaves plenty of room above what is tariffed. Second: the organiser's fine is the only one that reaches its maximum at the second offence and stays there, while those for guards and providers escalate in four steps. Someone who repeats twice pays as much as someone who repeats four times.
The cost of compliance, by contrast, is small and published. The Security Cadre Card – 1 Day Permit service page sets the one-day permit at 120 dirhams: 100 service fee, 10 knowledge fee and 10 innovation fee, plus the card delivery cost. It asks for a photo, passport, Emirates ID, residence visa for residents and a certificate of good conduct, and states two working days of processing.
What the Preventive Systems Manual requires of the venue
This is the part that affects the contract with the venue. Administrative Resolution No. 13 of 2025, signed by Khalifa Ibrahim Al Saleis, SIRA's chief executive, in Dubai on 14 April 2025, approves the Preventive Systems Manual and enters into force on the day of its publication. It runs to 140 pages and 43 chapters by type of establishment, including cinemas and theatres, amusement parks, sports and recreation halls, entertainment venues and arenas, and football clubs.
The common specifications in part one are concrete: colour cameras, minimum 1080p Full HD resolution, a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 48 dB, IP66 protection outdoors and an extended dynamic range of 110 dB or equivalent for cameras facing a light source. Cameras installed at four metres or higher need remote zoom and focus. And the recording duration and quality section states: "the recording must be kept for at least 31 days, at high quality, and at a frame rate of at least 10 frames per second", with equipment sized with 20% extra capacity.
What is required changes by type of venue:
| Venue | Key cameras | Other requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Cinemas and theatres (ch. 6) | Entrances at identification view; box offices and reception at recognition view; seating at detection view | Separate, enclosed CCTV control room, guards, female guard |
| Amusement parks (ch. 7) | Outdoor spaces, stages and crowd gathering areas at monitoring view | 24-hour guarding, a security manager who can be reached, operations room with emergency communication, anti-vehicle barriers at entrances |
| Entertainment venues and arenas (ch. 16) | Entrances at identification view; game rooms and private rooms at detection view; outer perimeter | System status monitoring service approved by SIRA |
| Football clubs (ch. 17) | Interior of box offices at recognition view; stands and platforms at detection view | 24-hour guarding if operation is continuous, supervisor or operations manager, operations room linked to ambulances |
The box office detail matters to anyone selling tickets: in a football club, the in-person point of sale is among those requiring recognition quality, the level at which, according to the manual's definitions, the image lets you identify someone already known. The management and operation chapter adds SIRA-approved signage warning of CCTV at the main entrances and a named person responsible for the systems.
Keeping 31 days of video of queues and box offices has a flip side: it is personal data. How to document the basis for that processing and what you can ask of the venue is covered in our guide on ticket buyer data in the UAE.
What about Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates?
There, federal legislation applies. The UAE Government's official portal u.ae lists, among the Ministry of Interior's rules, Federal Law No. 37 of 2006 on private security companies and Cabinet Resolution No. 33 of 2008 on licence fees for those companies.
The PSBD is the body that applies it. In an inspection campaign, Abu Dhabi Police reported 15 companies operating without a licence in the northern emirates: 8 in Ras Al Khaimah, 4 in Ajman and 3 in Umm Al Quwain, all referred to the prosecutor's office of their emirate. The release states that only companies with a federal licence may provide security services to organisations and institutions, that implementation is developed through Ministerial Decision No. 557 of 2008, and that Article 20 of the law punishes non-compliance with imprisonment or a fine of 20,000 dirhams. Colonel Ahmed Mohammad Al Hanttoobi, director of the PSBD, summed it up: "Non compliance with the Law and its Articles will lead to imposing of punishments and fines stipulated in the Law".
The process is digitised. Abu Dhabi Police itself describes the e-portal for private security companies, with guard data lookup and submission and renewal of authorisations. For a promoter, the practical consequence is the same as in Dubai through a different window: the company and every individual are licensed, and it is worth asking for a copy of both authorisations before signing.
The difference with Spain is one of architecture. There, the regime is single and national, that of Law 5/2014 of 4 April on Private Security, as we explain in detailing how many guards an event needs in Spain. In the UAE two regimes coexist, and the same promoter touring Dubai and Abu Dhabi handles two different accreditations for the same team.
What this changes for ticket sales
It changes the calendar and it changes the layout. The security permit is processed on a named list of personnel, and that list comes out of the door plan: how many entrances open, at what time and with how many people through each one. If the capacity you sell does not fit the approved plan, the problem appears on build day, when there is no margin left.
That is why access control stops being a purely technical matter. You need to know in real time how many people are inside each zone, be able to block a full zone, and keep an access log that serves the post-event report and coordination with the command post. We cover this in the guide to real-time capacity management.
Futura Tickets is a Spanish SaaS ticketing platform for professional organisers, with its registered office in Madrid and operations in Valencia. On a UAE project, what a ticketing system contributes to the security file is concrete: capacity limits by zone, fast validation at the gate and exportable access logs. The relationship with the emirate's public systems — the event licence, Dubai's eTicketing and the SIRA permit — has to be planned from the start, because each has its own clock.
That clock includes the box office: Decree No. 25 of 2013, of 11 August 2013, brings ticket sales in Dubai under the Department of Tourism's eLicensing and eTicketing system, defines "Ticket" as "any free or paid paper-based or electronic pass which authorises its bearer access to an Event" and requires tickets to be issued and distributed through the system.
Checklist before opening sales
Six steps, in the order in which they block the calendar.
Ask for the security company's licence and check the activity. A commercial licence is not enough: it must include "Event Security and Personal Guarding" if the event is in Dubai, or a federal PSBD licence if it is in Abu Dhabi or the north.
Close the named list before announcing reinforcements. The permit is granted for specific names, and there is a fine if someone appears who was not on the list. Last-minute changes are notified, not improvised.
Allow two working days of processing and ask for margin. That is the time SIRA states for the security permit and for the one-day card. Two working days in a week with a public holiday are not two calendar days.
Check whether you cross 100 guards. From there SIRA asks for a written security plan. If your deployment is close to that figure, prepare one anyway: it is the document that then organises everything else.
Write the manual's requirements into the venue contract. 1080p cameras, 31 days of recording at a minimum of 10 frames per second, an enclosed control room and approved signage. If the venue does not comply, the breach ends up affecting the event.
Separate the two jurisdictions in the budget. A single team working in Dubai and Abu Dhabi needs two different accreditations, with two regulators, two processes and two calendars.
Sources
- Law No. (12) of 2016 Regulating the Security Industry in the Emirate of Dubai — Dubai Legislation, Supreme Legislation Committee.
- Resolution No. (1) of 2018 Issuing the Implementing Bylaw of Law No. (12) of 2016 — SIRA, 12 July 2018.
- Administrative Resolution No. (13) of 2025 Approving the Preventive Systems Manual (PDF) — SIRA, 14 April 2025.
- Decree No. (25) of 2013 Concerning the Event eLicensing and eTicketing System in the Emirate of Dubai — Dubai Legislation, 11 August 2013.
- Event Security Permits — Security Industry Regulatory Agency, service page.
- Security Cadre Card – 1 Day Permit — Security Industry Regulatory Agency, service page.
- Violations — Security Industry Regulatory Agency, table of violations and fines.
- 15 companies violate the law of private security business in Northern Emirates — Abu Dhabi Police.
- Opening of E-Portal for Private Security Companies — Abu Dhabi Police.
- Business regulations: laws concerning private security companies — Official portal of the United Arab Emirates Government.
- Dubai's Event Security Committee Announces Full Readiness for New Year 2026 Celebrations — Dubai Government Media Office, 26 December 2025.