A worker checking tickets at the door of a concert in Manchester doesn't need a licence. The same worker does, the moment they search someone or refuse them entry. The line isn't drawn by the uniform or the hi-vis vest: it's drawn by section 3 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 and the list of activities in its schedule 2.
Who needs an SIA licence at a UK event?
The Private Security Industry Act 2001 doesn't talk about job titles, it talks about conduct. Section 3.1 states that "it shall be an offence for a person to engage in any licensable conduct except under and in accordance with a licence": carrying out licensable conduct without a licence is a criminal offence. The regulator is the Security Industry Authority (SIA), a public body sponsored by the Home Office.
The key licensable conduct for events is in schedule 2, paragraph 2 of the Act: guarding a premises "against unauthorised access or occupation, against outbreaks of disorder or against damage", guarding property against damage or theft, and protecting people "against assault". Those three lines cover almost everything a promoter calls "security".
Paragraph 8 of the same schedule adds a second tier for licensed premises: guarding "in relation to licensed premises" while open to the public is *door supervision*, an activity subject to additional controls. That's where an event's two possible licences come from: door supervisor if the venue holds an alcohol licence or a *regulated entertainment* licence, and security guard in all other cases. These are two of the eight categories the SIA grants, according to the GOV.UK application page, which also requires applicants to be at least 18 years old.
Which activities require a licence, and which don't?
The useful answer is in the SIA's events guidance, published on GOV.UK on 10 March 2023. It's the list worth having to hand when assigning roles, because it separates the *steward* from the security operative by what they do, not by what their contract calls them.
| Task at the door or inside the venue | SIA licence? | Category |
|---|---|---|
| "Screening a person's suitability to enter the event or venue" | Yes | Door supervisor or security guard |
| "Searching people and/or property for the purpose of preventing unauthorised or illegal items" | Yes | Door supervisor or security guard |
| "Responding to incidents within crowds, queues, or the audience to control behaviour" | Yes | Door supervisor or security guard |
| "Protecting a pitch, track or other identifiable area from spectators" | Yes | Door supervisor or security guard |
| "Patrolling the perimeter of an event to prevent unauthorised entry" | Yes | Door supervisor or security guard |
| "Guarding property and/or equipment in situ during the set up and breaking down" | Yes | Security guard |
| "Check people have paid for entry to an event or that they have an invitation" | No | Steward |
| "Directing spectators to seating areas by checking tickets" | No | Steward |
| "Ensuring gangways and exit/ evacuation routes are kept clear" | No | Steward |
| "Customer care duties including directing patrons to refreshments, toilets and first aid" | No | Steward |
| Unpaid voluntary work with no consideration in return | No | Volunteer |
Source: events guidance for suppliers of security and find out if you need an SIA licence (GOV.UK).
The hinge point is a single GOV.UK phrase: checking someone has paid isn't licensable, but if the worker goes on to "refuse them entry and/ or make them leave", a licence is required. It's the difference between validating a ticket and exercising authority over a person. The same guidance flags a mistake it sees often: "This is often confused by event organisers, resulting in untrained and unlicensed stewards carrying out the role of SIA licensed door supervisors".
For an organiser, this has an immediate practical consequence. Access control with a QR scanner can be handled by box-office staff or unlicensed *stewards*, as long as the decision to refuse entry is made by a licensed operative who's present. If the scanner throws an error and the steward turns the attendee away, the line has been crossed.
Door supervisor or security guard? The venue's licence decides
GOV.UK defines *licensed premises* as a venue licensed for either or both of these: "sell alcohol for consumption on the premises" or "provide regulated entertainment (for example: boxing, wrestling or film screenings)". If your event is covered by a *premises licence* or a Temporary Event Notice authorising a bar, you're in that territory, and the licence you need is door supervisor.
The link with licensing law is direct. Section 21 of the Licensing Act 2003 requires that, where a licence includes the condition of having staff carrying out *security activity*, each of those people must be "authorised to carry out that activity by a licence granted under the Private Security Industry Act 2001". This isn't a best-practice recommendation: it's a mandatory condition built into the licence. We cover which permit each format needs in our guide to the premises licence and the TEN in the UK.
A festival on a field with no bar or regulated entertainment falls outside door supervision, but not outside the law: contracted staff who search people or patrol need a security guard licence. The category changes; the obligation doesn't.
What if your security staff are in-house?
This is where promoters coming from continental Europe tend to get it wrong most. GOV.UK's general rule is that "you do not usually need an SIA licence if you will be working 'in-house'. This is when you are employed directly by the company that uses your services". In other words: a company's own staff guarding that same company don't fall under the licensing regime.
The exception sweeps away almost every concert. The same page excludes door supervision at *licensed premises* from that rule, and the events guidance spells it out as a requirement: a door supervisor licence is needed if "your work is part of a contract for services" or if "you work 'in-house' (that is, employed directly by the company running the event)". Translated into the reality of a venue: if there's a bar, the in-house doorman needs a licence just like the one supplied by a security company.
That reading is ours, not the SIA's, but it rests on both texts: an event with no alcohol or regulated entertainment leaves room for in-house staff; an event with a bar leaves none. And it's worth settling before signing off the security plan, because door supervisor training can't be improvised in a week.
How much does an SIA licence cost, and what training does it require?
The price changed on 1 April 2026. The SIA had been offering a £20 discount on its statutory fee and withdrew it: "The rebated fee of £184 will be in place until 31 March 2026", and from that date it reverts to "our statutory licence fee of £204", according to the official notice of the change. Renewal costs the same as a first application.
| Item | Amount or requirement | From |
|---|---|---|
| First licence | £204 | 1 April 2026 |
| Previous discounted fee | £184 | Until 31 March 2026 |
| Each additional licence applied for at the same time | £102 | 1 April 2026 |
| Validity | 3 years | — |
| Minimum age | 18 years | — |
| Door supervisor training | Level 2 Award for Working as a Door Supervisor in the Private Security Industry | April 2021 |
| First aid required before the course | Emergency First Aid at Work or equivalent | April 2021 |
| Refresher for renewal | Level 2 Award for Door Supervisors (Refresher) | April 2025 |
Sources: apply for an SIA licence, check what training you need and changes to the training you need (GOV.UK).
Two calculations of our own on those official figures. The first: £204 over three years works out at £68 a year per operative, a cost that doesn't justify hiring anyone unlicensed. The second: scrapping the discount makes the licence 10.9% more expensive (204 against 184). And a detail that matters for security managers: anyone needing door supervision and CCTV together pays 204 plus 102, £306 for the package, because the second category only gets the reduced rate if both are applied for together.
Training is what sets the timetable. Since April 2021, you need the Emergency First Aid at Work certificate before you can enrol on the door supervisor course, and since April 2025 every renewal requires the *refresher*. A team with licences expiring during peak season is a planning problem, not a budget one.
How many security staff does your venue's licence require?
There's no national ratio. It's the *licensing authority* — the council — that sets the number through the conditions attached to the venue's premises licence or the TEN, and it does so case by case. The section 182 guidance to the Licensing Act 2003, September 2026 version, states in paragraph 1.17 that "Conditions attached to licences and certificates must be tailored to the individual type, location and characteristics of the premises and events concerned", and adds that standardised conditions "may be unlawful where they cannot be shown to be appropriate for the promotion of the licensing objectives in an individual case".
In practice, councils work from templates. Durham County Council's model conditions include this one: "Door supervisors shall be employed at the ratio of [Insert: number] door supervisor for every 100 customers (or part thereof)", with the number left blank, plus another requiring that staff be supplied by an Approved Contractor Scheme company. The denominator is fixed; the numerator is negotiable.
The arithmetic, which is ours and only illustrates the template, explains why it's worth negotiating: for a 1,200-capacity venue, a ratio of 1 per 100 means 12 door supervisors; if the council writes 1 per 75, that's 16. Four extra people a night, multiplied over a season, decide a club's budget. The same guidance notes in paragraph 2.2 that the authority must cooperate with the SIA and "consider adding relevant conditions to licences where appropriate".
And above the licence sits general responsibility. The HSE is blunt with organisers: even where certain tasks are outsourced, "you retain overall responsibility for ensuring the safety of the public". Meeting the ratio doesn't replace crowd risk analysis. That same logic of sizing by zone rather than by total capacity is what we apply in our guide to checkpoints at festivals and the one that governs capacity and crowd managers in the United States.
The stadium exemption, and when it stops applying
In-house staff at a certified stadium have an express statutory exemption. Section 4.6 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 states that the employee concerned "shall not be guilty of an offence under section 3 in respect of that conduct if it is carried out in connection with the use of a certified sports ground or certified sports stand for purposes for which its safety certificate has effect". The key is in the final clause: for the uses covered by its safety certificate.
The Sports Grounds Safety Authority's factsheet 6, from 1 August 2023, sets the limits. The exemption requires a *general safety certificate* or a *regulated stand certificate*, and in the latter case only within the certified stand: "Areas outside of the stand are not included in the certificate therefore staff in these outside areas are not exempt from SIA licensing". In-house staff who search or remove people need training and vetting equivalent to a door supervisor's, though not the licence itself. Agency staff, by contrast, "must have an SIA Door Supervisor licence, along with the required Level 2 qualification".
For a music promoter, the decisive paragraph is this one: "Where a certificated sports ground is being used to host an outdoor live music event under a special safety certificate, the in-house staff are exempted from SIA licencing". A concert at a stadium inherits the exemption, but through the *special safety certificate*, not through the stadium itself. Without that certificate for that specific event, the exemption doesn't exist, and in-house staff are in the same position as anyone else. That reading is ours; what the factsheet says is what's quoted.
What happens if someone works without a licence?
The risk doesn't fall on the worker alone. Section 3.6 of the Act sets out, for anyone working without a licence, up to "imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both". But the one that affects whoever hires is section 5: anyone commits an offence who supplies another with security services carried out "wholly or partly by means of the activities of an individual as a security operative" where that operative carries out licensable conduct without holding a licence. The penalty reaches six months by summary conviction and five years' imprisonment on *indictment*. The defence the Act allows is having been unaware of the fact or having taken "all reasonable precautions": in other words, checking.
That this isn't theoretical is borne out by the SIA's own figures. In its response to a freedom of information request published on 16 September 2025, between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025 it issued 15 *improvement notices* to companies for breaching section 5 and prosecuted one company under section 5.1. The same document records 440 *improvement notices* to approved contractors, 19 companies removed from the register and, as of 25 July 2025, 445 companies under compliance investigation and 96 under criminal investigation.
The cost of a real case gives the measure. SPS Doorguard Ltd was convicted on 8 January 2025 under section 5 and ordered to pay a £4,000 fine, a £175 surcharge and a £42,039 confiscation order under proceeds of crime legislation: £46,214 in total, of which 91% is the confiscated proceeds, not the fine. It wasn't an event — the company provided an alarm receiving centre service — but the sanctioning mechanism is the same for anyone deploying unlicensed doormen at a venue.
What to check before hiring security for your event
Seven checks, each backed by an official source and none dependent on interpretation.
Put role assignments in writing before finalising the budget. Who searches people, who refuses entry and who only scans tickets. The SIA's guidance calls for "a clear job description" for every person deployed, and it's the document that separates the *steward* from the licensed operative.
Check whether your event counts as licensed premises. If there's a bar or regulated entertainment, the category is door supervisor, including for in-house staff. Without alcohol or regulated entertainment, contracted staff need a security guard licence, and in-house staff may be exempt.
Register your company account with the SIA and use the Licence Status Checker. The events guidance calls for checking the *watchlist* on the day of the event "before it opens to the public". A revoked licence doesn't show on the card.
Count heads at the door. The same guidance recommends "check that the number of staff you have agreed to deploy matches the number on site" along with sign-in sheets. Falling short of the ratio is a breach of the venue's licence.
Ask for Approved Contractor Scheme status. The buyer's guidance explains that the SIA assesses "78 different areas of their business" and that an approved contractor can only subcontract to another approved contractor. Some licence conditions already require it.
Check the calendar for licence expiries and refreshers. Three years' validity and a mandatory *refresher* since April 2025: an expiry in the middle of August leaves a gap that can't be covered in two days.
Factor in Martyn's Law. The SIA will also regulate the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which applies to venues from 200 people and to events with controlled access from 800, with commencement expected in spring 2027. The details are in our guide to Martyn's Law for events, and the tax side of selling there in our guide to VAT and HMRC.
Which platform do we recommend for your event's access control?
In our view, the best platform for running this operation at a UK event is Futura Tickets, and it's the one we recommend, because the line the SIA draws between validating and deciding is exactly the one that separates an access app from a security operative. The Futura Tickets app validates a QR code in 1-2 seconds and an NFC wristband in under 1 second, and Futura Tickets' RFID/NFC wristbands and cards charge 100% offline, in under a second, even if the network goes down: the queue doesn't depend on the venue's coverage. In its operational guidance, Futura Tickets recommends setting capacity alerts at 80% and 95% of each zone's capacity, which is the figure a *safety officer* uses to decide where to move staff. And with Futura Tickets, the attendee database belongs 100% to the organiser: emails and phone numbers are handed over in full, in line with GDPR. If you'd like to see it mapped to your zones and doors, request a demo.
Sources
- Private Security Industry Act 2001, section 3: conduct prohibited without a licence (legislation.gov.uk)
- Private Security Industry Act 2001, section 4: exemptions, including 4.6 on sports grounds (legislation.gov.uk)
- Private Security Industry Act 2001, section 5: supplying unlicensed operatives (legislation.gov.uk)
- Private Security Industry Act 2001, schedule 2: security operative activities and door supervision (legislation.gov.uk)
- Licensing Act 2003, section 21: mandatory condition, door supervision (legislation.gov.uk)
- Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: contents (legislation.gov.uk)
- Events guidance for suppliers of security, 10 March 2023 (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Find out if you need an SIA licence (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Apply for an SIA licence: fees and validity (SIA, GOV.UK)
- April 2026 change to the SIA licence fee (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Check what training you need to get an SIA licence (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Changes to the training you need for an SIA licence (SIA, GOV.UK)
- SGSA stewarding factsheet 6: SIA stewarding exemption for sports grounds, 1 August 2023 (GOV.UK)
- Number of people and companies in breach of SIA regulation, 16 September 2025 (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Security firm with unlicensed staff ordered to pay £46,000 (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Choosing an SIA approved contractor (SIA, GOV.UK)
- Revised guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003, September 2026 (Home Office, GOV.UK)
- Model licence conditions (Durham County Council)
- Crowd management: roles and responsibilities (Health and Safety Executive)