FAQ
Questions people ask before they book
Straight answers, including to the ones where the honest answer is “it depends” or “we do not do that”.
Services
What types of security do you provide?
Manned guarding, commercial and retail security, construction and warehouse site security, event and venue security, close protection and canine teams, and keyholding with alarm response. Each has its own page setting out what it covers and how it runs.
What areas do you cover?
London and the surrounding counties. If your site sits outside that, ask — we would rather tell you plainly that it is too far than take the booking and cover it badly.
Do you monitor CCTV around the clock?
We do not operate a manned monitoring centre, and we will not claim one. What we do provide is keyholding and alarm response, and CCTV review support around an incident — including preserving the relevant footage before the system overwrites it. If someone tells you they monitor your cameras 24/7, ask to see the room.
Can you cover a single shift or a one-off event?
Yes. The part that cannot be compressed is the site survey and the written brief, because an officer who does not know the site cannot guard it properly. Tell us the dates and we will be honest about what can be in place and to what standard.
What happens if an officer is sick or on holiday?
Cover arrangements are written into the assignment instruction at the start, so a replacement officer arrives already briefed on your site rather than reading about it at the gate. It is worth agreeing this before you need it rather than during it.
Licensing
Are your officers SIA licensed?
Yes. Front-line security operatives must hold a valid SIA licence by law, and we can provide licence details for any officer assigned to your site.
Is the company itself SIA licensed?
No company is, and any company that tells you otherwise is describing something that does not exist. SIA licences are issued to individuals, not to businesses. The company-level credential is approval under the SIA's Approved Contractor Scheme, which is a separate accreditation. We state only credentials we actually hold, and we will show you the evidence rather than a logo.
Are you insured?
Yes, and you are entitled to see the certificate rather than take our word for it. Ask at quotation stage and it will be provided with the quote.
How are officers vetted?
Right-to-work, identity and SIA licence checks as standard, with references taken up. Roles in education and certain other settings additionally require enhanced disclosure, and where that applies it is a condition of the officer working rather than an optional extra.
What are the rules on guard dogs?
Guard dogs on occupied premises carry specific legal duties, including that the dog remains under the control of a handler and that warning notices are displayed. Those duties fall on you as occupier as well as on us, so they are set out in writing before any canine deployment.
Working with us
How does a new assignment start?
With a site visit. From it we produce a written assignment instruction — the patrol route and timings, access rules, key holders, escalation contacts in order, and what to do in the situations likely on that particular site. Nothing starts until you have agreed it.
What is an assignment instruction?
The written brief for your site, and the single thing that most separates good guarding from poor guarding. It stays on site, officers are briefed against it before their first shift, and it is revised whenever the site or the risk changes.
What reporting do we get?
Shift and incident reports on a schedule agreed with you, written so they stand up if they are later handed to an insurer or the police. Where we hold keys, every callout produces its own written report.
Will we get the same officers each time?
That is what we aim for, because familiarity with a building is a genuine security asset rather than a convenience. Continuous cover means rotation and relief, so it will not be one person indefinitely — but it should not be a different face every week either.
How do we raise a problem?
Through the named contact and escalation order agreed at the start, both of which are in writing. If an officer is not performing, tell us — that is a fixable problem, and it stays fixable for exactly as long as nobody has decided to say nothing.
Cost
How much does security cost?
It depends on the hours, the number of posts, the licence category required and how much notice there is. There is no useful single hourly rate, and any figure quoted before someone has looked at the site is a guess. Tell us the requirement and you will get a written quotation.
Do you charge for the site survey?
No. The survey is how a quotation gets to be accurate, so it is part of quoting rather than an extra on top of it.
Is there a minimum contract length?
Not as a rule. Ongoing cover is normally arranged on an agreed period so both sides can plan staffing, and short-notice and one-off work is quoted on its own terms. Whatever is agreed goes in writing before it starts.
Still have a question?
Ask it directly — we would rather answer it now than have you guess.