Savysec is a London-based security company. Our officers are SIA-licensed and vetted, and we are a London Living Wage accredited employer. Call 0204 572 7681 to talk through a site, or read on first.

A security agency supplies trained officers to your site and takes on the employment burden that comes with them: recruitment, vetting, licence checks, rostering, payroll, PAYE and National Insurance, holiday and sickness cover, uniform, supervision, insurance and training records. You buy an outcome — a manned post, covered every hour you have specified — rather than a person. If an officer calls in sick at 04:00, the agency finds the replacement. Hire directly and that call comes to you.

Direct employment can work if you have one site, stable hours and someone in-house who genuinely wants to manage a rota. You get continuity and you cut out a margin. What you take on is real: a 24/7 post needs several full-time equivalents once you account for leave, sickness and training, and you carry the cost of every absence.

An agency spreads that risk across a larger workforce. It also brings supervision — someone above the officer whose job is to check the post is being worked properly. For multi-site portfolios, seasonal peaks, or anything involving event security where headcount swings week to week, an agency is almost always the more sensible structure.

Most London agencies run a core of contracted officers assigned to specific sites, supported by a relief pool covering leave and absence, plus a casual bank used for events and short-notice demand. The mix matters to you. A supplier running almost entirely on casual labour will struggle to send the same faces to your site twice, which undermines the single biggest operational advantage of static guarding: an officer who knows your building, your people and what normal looks like.

Ask how the supplier’s workforce is split, how relief officers are briefed before a first shift, and who supervises out of hours.

Verify five things. Every officer must hold a valid SIA licence — check the 16-digit number on the SIA’s free public Register of Licence Holders, searchable online, which shows licence status, sector and expiry. Confirm employer’s liability insurance (a legal requirement, minimum £5 million) and public liability cover. Ask whether staff are directly employed or subcontracted. Ask how many staff they have each week, on payroll. And ask for reputable references that you can contact, then confirm them independently. Not one off events references or companies you’ve never head from, someone they have worked with for years. Reputation is everything. 

Price is the most reliable signal in this market. Security guarding is overwhelmingly a labour cost, so once you deduct wages, employer’s National Insurance, pension, holiday pay and insurance, there is very little room left. An hourly rate that looks unusually cheap is not clever buying — it is a rate that never works if the officer is paid close to the legal minimum, which means high turnover, unfilled shifts, and a stranger on your reception desk every fortnight.

Savysec is a London Living Wage accredited employer, which means our officers are paid at or above the independently calculated London Living Wage. We would rather explain a rate than defend a rotation of unfamiliar faces.

Call 0204 572 7681 to discuss what a realistic rate looks like for your hours and site type.

Keep the list short and specific. Vague questions get vague answers.

Ask each shortlisted supplier the same questions and compare the answers side by side. The differences will be obvious.

Commercial guarding contracts in the UK are typically 12 months with rolling renewal, and notice periods of 30 to 90 days are standard. Rate reviews are usually annual and often tied to National Living Wage or London Living Wage upratings — ask how increases are passed through before you sign. Event and short-term work runs on individual bookings instead, with cancellation terms defined in hours rather than months.

If you are replacing an incumbent agency and the same officers will continue on the same site, TUPE (the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006) will usually apply. The officers transfer to the incoming supplier on their existing terms, and both suppliers have information and consultation duties.

Practically, that means you should request employee liability information from the outgoing agency early, and expect your new supplier to ask for it. A supplier that has not raised TUPE by the second conversation may not have handled a takeover before. Done properly, it is a straightforward process and it protects continuity — your officers stay, your building keeps the knowledge. If unhappy with your existing guard, a lawful termination will be needed unless stated in the terms previous.

Every site should have a written escalation path: what the officer handles, what goes to the supervisor, what reaches you immediately, and what waits until morning. Agree the thresholds in writing before cover starts rather than discovering them during an incident.

On reporting, expect daily occurrence logs, incident reports filed within a defined window, and a periodic summary. On account management, you should have a named contact who is not the person who sold you the contract, plus a documented out-of-hours route into the operations team. Savysec provides 24/7 guarding cover with supervision behind it — but no supplier should ever quote you a guaranteed arrival time for an incident response.

Two to four weeks before the first shift, expect: a site survey, written assignment instructions covering patrol routes, access control and escalation, named officers allocated and shift-briefed, TUPE consultation completed where relevant, licence and right-to-work checks evidenced, uniform and equipment confirmed, and a walk-through with your team. On day one, a supervisor should attend the first shift. A review meeting within the first month catches what the survey missed.

Our work across London covers static and mobile requirements alike — mobile patrols form part of a wider guarding package rather than a standalone service.

How do I verify that a security officer holds a valid SIA licence? Ask for the 16-digit licence number and check it on the SIA’s public Register of Licence Holders, which is free to search online. The register confirms whether the licence is active, which sector it covers, and when it expires. A Door Supervisor licence and a Security Guard licence are not interchangeable, so check the sector matches the role.

Can a company be SIA licensed? No. The Security Industry Authority licenses individual people, not businesses, so any company describing itself as “SIA licensed” is using the term incorrectly. What you should confirm is that every officer deployed to your site personally holds a current, valid licence for the correct sector. Ask for numbers and check them yourself.

How much notice do I need to give to change security agency? Most commercial guarding contracts require between 30 and 90 days’ written notice, so check the clause before you start a tender. Build the notice period into your timeline alongside mobilisation, which needs a further two to four weeks. If TUPE applies, allow additional time for consultation with the transferring officers.

Is it cheaper to employ security staff directly? On paper the hourly cost can look lower, but direct employment moves recruitment, vetting, payroll, absence cover, training and supervision onto your team. A single 24-hour post requires several full-time equivalents once leave and sickness are covered. For most single-site buyers the management overhead outweighs the saving. People often outsource security for the protection of reputation. A security company can be changed if they make a bad mistake, an internally hired security can cause large internal issues especially in investigations and ongoing employment.

What insurance should a London security agency hold? Employer’s liability insurance is a legal requirement for any business with employees, with a minimum of £5 million of cover. Public liability insurance is not legally mandatory but is expected in this sector and often required by landlords or venues. Ask for certificates and check the policy dates are current.

Will the same security officers return to my site each week? With static guarding this should be the norm, and it is worth writing into the contract. Continuity means officers learn your building, recognise regular staff and spot anomalies faster. Ask any prospective supplier directly how many named officers will be allocated to your rota and who covers their leave.

If you are running a tender, comparing quotes, or simply working out what your site actually needs, we are happy to be a useful conversation rather than a hard sell. Call Savysec on 0204 572 7681 or get in touch via savysec.co.uk to arrange a site survey.