How Long Is an SIA Licence Valid?
SIA licence
Three years for every licence type except vehicle immobiliser, which lasts one year.
"All licences last for 3 years - except for a vehicle immobiliser licence, which lasts for 1 year."
Renewal, refreshers, and what a lapse means
- Who it applies to
- Individuals working in licensable roles under the Private Security Industry Act 2001: door supervision, security guarding, CCTV (public space surveillance), close protection, cash and valuables in transit, key holding, vehicle immobilisation.
- How it is renewed
- Apply to renew through the SIA before the current licence expires; the renewed licence runs for another three years. Working in a licensable role without a valid licence is an offence, so the renewal has to be in hand before the date, not after.
- When it lapses
- A door supervisor, security guard or CCTV operator whose licence has expired cannot legally work in that role until a new licence is issued. For the roster that is a hard stop on the expiry date.
Renewal reminders for your calendar
Enter the date and this page builds a calendar file with the expiry date and reminders 120 days and 60 days and 14 days before it. Nothing leaves your browser; the file is generated here and opens in Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.
What this does to the roster
The SIA licence is the one qualification on this site where a lapse is not a gap in cover but a person who cannot be rostered at all. A door team of six with one licence expiring on Friday is a door team of five from Saturday, whatever the rota says, and the venue that needs two licensed staff on the door is now running the presence arithmetic on five holders rather than six. That is still comfortable on paper, but the next lapse, or the next sick night, is not.
Three years is also long enough for a licence to expire on a different date for every member of a team, which is the good version: staggered expiries mean the team never loses more than one person at a time. The bad version is a team recruited together for an opening, all licensed in the same month, all expiring in the same month three years later, with renewals that depend on an application being processed in time. Put the dates on the rota, not in the HR file, and start renewals when the reminder fires a quarter out.
Because the licence is personal and portable, the roster usually learns about an expiry from the holder, late, rather than from its own records. The teams that avoid the Saturday gap keep the expiry date as a field against the person, the same way they keep a phone number, and build the rota from people whose licence is valid on the night rather than from people on the payroll.
How many holders does that take?
Validity says whether a certificate counts today. The next question is how many valid holders the operation needs so that the required number is actually on shift once leave, sickness and the occasional lapse are priced in.
Common questions
- How long does an SIA licence last?
- Three years for all licence types except vehicle immobiliser, which lasts one year, per the SIA. Renewal before expiry issues a licence for another three years.
- Can someone work while their SIA renewal is being processed?
- Only while the current licence is still valid. Once it has expired the person cannot work in a licensable role until the new licence is issued, so renewals need to be submitted well before the date. Check the SIA guidance for current processing advice.
- What does an SIA lapse do to the door roster?
- It removes the person from every licensable shift from the expiry date. A door team that needs two licensed staff on every night and has six licence holders is on five for as long as the renewal takes; the presence arithmetic for that team is on the qualified cover pages.
This page summarises the cited source as read on 2026-08-19. Rules change and needs assessments differ; check the source for your own case. Keeping each person's expiry date on the record that builds the rota is what the Skills tab in Soon is for.
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