Can you get an SIA licence with a criminal record?

The short version

• A record is not an automatic bar. The SIA says you may still get a licence with offences on your record. It looks at how relevant each offence is, how recent it is and what sentence or disposal you got.
• Spent convictions can be seen. The SIA says it is allowed to look at them, and most of your record can be considered.
• Some cases are normally refused whenever the offence happened. These include sexual offences and child abuse or neglect offences marked in the SIA’s list, and prison sentences of more than 48 months.
• Check first. The SIA has an online criminal record indicator. It is a guide, not a promise, and the licence payment is not refundable.
• Charges not yet in court: you must declare them. The SIA may wait for the result.
• If you are refused, you have 21 days to appeal to a magistrates’ court (a sheriff in Scotland), though in some cases only on a factual error.

What the SIA checks

The SIA says it checks the criminal record of everyone who applies. It sends a disclosure request to one of three bodies, depending on where you have lived in the last 5 years.

If you live outside the UK, or have spent 6 continuous months or more outside it in the last 10 years, the SIA also asks for an official criminal record check from each country. The SIA looks at offences abroad too, matching them to the nearest listed offence.

The SIA says it looks at convictions and also at cautions, warnings, community resolutions, absolute or conditional discharges and admonitions. Roles such as an SIA licence are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, so the SIA can see unspent and some spent convictions and cautions, subject to filtering rules.

Which offences are relevant

The SIA only weighs offences it treats as “relevant”. Its GOV.UK page lists 25 categories: abuse or neglect of children, animal welfare, armed forces offences, breaches of court orders and regulatory offences, company law, criminal attempts, encouragement and assistance, criminal damage, dishonesty (theft and fraud), driving offences, drug offences, espionage and terrorism, firearms, immigration, Licensing Act 2003, offensive weapons, prison offences, private security industry offences, proceeds of crime, public order, safeguarding, sexual offences, smuggling and customs, social security, tax evasion, and violent and abusive behaviour.

The booklet says its descriptions of each category are not exhaustive. The full list of offences is in Annex A of Get Licensed (pages 76 to 132). Check your own offence there, or use the indicator, rather than guessing from the category name.

The grid for a single offence

For one relevant offence that is not a sexual or child abuse offence and did not get a sentence of more than 48 months, the SIA decides using the sentence or disposal and the time since “sentence restrictions ended”. This is the SIA’s grid from page 39 of Get Licensed.

The SIA puts an asterisk on every “grant” and “consider additional factors” result. Its note says these results do not apply to sexual and child abuse offences, which it considers as set out below, or where its different approaches to certain custodial sentences apply. Our reading, not the SIA’s wording: because the SIA says a prison sentence of more than 12 months is either a refusal or a “consider additional factors” case, the “grant” in the last cell of the Prison column cannot apply to those longer sentences.

When the clock starts depends on what you were given.

• Fine, caution, warning, community resolution, discharge or admonition: the day after it was imposed.
• Community order: the end of the order. If no date is shown on the check, 12 months after sentence. You can show the SIA proof that it was discharged earlier.
• Suspended sentence: the end of the sentence period, not the suspension period. A six month sentence suspended for two years counts from six months after conviction.
• Prison: the end of the full sentence, not the date you were sentenced or released. Early release does not change it. Time on remand is taken into account if you send evidence.

The SIA uses the date it makes its decision, not the date you applied. A prison sentence of more than 12 months is either a refusal or a “consider additional factors” case, depending on the time since it ended. If the sentence was more than 48 months, the SIA will not grant automatically however long ago it ended.

More than one offence

The SIA treats several offences more strictly. Where none is a sexual or child abuse offence marked in its list, it says it will automatically refuse if you have any combination of:

• three or more convictions, where all the sentence restrictions ended in the past seven years for relevant offences and each would have been “consider additional factors” on its own;
• two or more convictions where all the sentence restrictions ended within the past four years; or
• a custodial sentence (the SIA counts suspended sentence orders as custodial here), with the restrictions ended within the seven years before the SIA assesses your record, plus any conviction, caution, warning, community resolution, discharge or admonition with restrictions ended within the past four years.

It says it will “consider additional factors” if you have three or more convictions where restrictions ended in the past seven years and each would otherwise have been granted; two or more cautions or similar disposals within four years; or a single conviction and one or more cautions or similar disposals within four years.

Offences you committed as a juvenile are treated differently. The SIA says records from ages 10 to 12 are not relevant unless the offence was considered serious under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, and the multiple-offence rules above do not apply to juvenile offences, except where its “intention to refuse” approach applies. The booklet has its own grid for them. We do not reproduce it here.

Cases the SIA treats most strictly

The SIA says sexual offences and offences against children, including child neglect, raise particular public protection concerns because licence holders may have unsupervised access to members of the public. It also treats a sentence of more than 48 months this way. There are two routes.

Absolute refusal. The SIA will not grant a licence to an applicant who:

• is on the sex offenders register under Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or the equivalent in Scotland or Northern Ireland;
• is subject to a sexual harm prevention order or sexual risk order, or an equivalent measure the SIA knows of;
• has more than one adult conviction or disposal for an asterisked sexual or child abuse offence; or
• has a conviction for a sexual offence committed during employment as a licence holder or in a position of trust or responsibility.

The first two points apply to a current licence holder who applies to renew as well. The last two apply to new applicants; a current holder renewing is dealt with under “intention to refuse” instead.

In these cases the SIA says it will only look at evidence of a factual error, such as a record that is not yours. You then have 21 days from its notice to send that evidence, and the SIA says it will then tell you that you have a further 21 days to appeal to a court. The Act itself counts 21 days from when the decision was first notified to you (section 11), so act on the dates in the SIA’s letters and do not assume you have 42 days.

Intention to refuse. For other sexual or child abuse offences, or a prison sentence of more than 48 months, the SIA says it will normally refuse whenever the offence happened. It writes to you first. You have 21 days to send evidence of exceptional circumstances showing compelling reasons why you are not a current public protection risk. It lists factors it may weigh, including how long ago it was, your age at the time, the victim, the disposal, any later offences and credible character references.

Spent convictions, cautions and old records

An old record is not ignored. The SIA says it can look at spent convictions, because it has a duty to consider public safety. But the grid does reward time. In its grid a single caution or similar disposal is a grant once more than 12 months have passed since the restrictions ended, a single fine or community disposal once more than 2 years have passed, and any other single offence once more than 7 years have passed, apart from the cases above and prison sentences of more than 12 months, which the SIA says stay a refusal or a “consider additional factors” case.

Our reading, not the SIA’s wording: the sentence matters more than the date of the offence, because the clock runs from when the restrictions ended.

Charges, investigations and what you must declare

You must tell the SIA about outstanding charges for a relevant offence, and about any ongoing police, public body or professional body investigation for a possible relevant offence or misconduct. The SIA may ask for a solicitor’s letter or court document showing the offences and when the case is due. It may wait for the result. It reviews a held application every 3 months and withdraws it if the matter is unresolved one year after you applied. It advises waiting until the outcome is known before applying.

Giving the SIA false information is an offence. Section 22 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 covers statements that you know to be false in a material particular or that you make recklessly, with up to six months in prison, a fine up to level 5, or both. Our reading, not the SIA’s wording: because the SIA runs its own record check, a record you leave out will usually be seen anyway, so declaring it gives you a chance to explain.

Information beyond convictions

The SIA also considers other information on whether you are a “fit and proper” person, such as police information, other regulators, anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse, stalking, or misconduct findings. It says it will usually act where that information shows it is more likely than not to be true. It may invite you to comment before it refuses or revokes.

If you are refused

What you can do depends on the route.

• Automatic refusal (the grid or multiple-offence rules): you can only send evidence of factual errors, for example a mistaken identity, a wrong assessment, remand time that changes the result, or proof a community order ended early.
• Consider additional factors: you can send mitigation. The SIA names signed and dated character references, and evidence of rehabilitation such as voluntary training or community activity. References from independent people count for more. It says references from family, friends and your current employer carry little weight. It says it will not weigh your finances, private security licences you held under other schemes (such as local authority or police schemes), a firearms licence, other SIA decisions you think are similar, or emotional circumstances and arguments other than references.
• Intention to refuse: the evidence route described above, then an appeal to court if it still refuses.

Section 11 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 lets you appeal a refusal, or the revocation of a licence, to a magistrates’ court, or in Scotland to the sheriff, within 21 days of the day the SIA first notified you. A further appeal can go to the Crown Court (a county court in Northern Ireland), or in Scotland to the Sheriff Principal. The court applies the same SIA criteria. If you are a licence holder renewing, or facing revocation, the licence is deemed to stay in force while an appeal can be brought and while one is pending.

If you already hold a licence

Licence conditions require you to tell the SIA if you get any conviction, caution or warning, or are charged, for a relevant offence, in the UK or abroad, or if a public body is investigating you for one. The booklet gives the deadline as 2 calendar days. Not following your licence conditions is a criminal offence under section 9 of the Act, with up to six months in prison, a fine up to level 5, or both. The Act gives a defence if you took all due diligence to avoid the breach.

The SIA says it will revoke a licence if you receive a sentence for a relevant offence that puts you in the automatic refusal category, and that it may revoke in other cases, including after a new sentence in the “consider additional factors” category. It also says the December 2025 criteria are not applied to current holders unless it receives new information about you or you apply for a new licence.

England, Wales and Scotland

The criteria in Get Licensed apply to every applicant, wherever they live. What differs is the body that checks your record (table above), the Scottish and Northern Ireland equivalents the SIA names for some offences, and the court: appeals go to a magistrates’ court in England and Wales and to the sheriff in Scotland. The Act also extends to Northern Ireland, and the SIA’s GOV.UK pages say the vehicle immobiliser licence applies only there. This guide does not cover training requirements outside England and Wales; see our guide to getting an SIA licence.

If your record is clear to apply

Once you know you can apply, you still have to pass the exam. Our free SIA door supervisor practice test has 25 original questions, and a bank of 295 questions in the same style is on sale as the SIA door supervisor question bank for £9. It covers England and Wales law only, and it is not from the SIA or an awarding body.

What this guide cannot tell you

We cannot say whether your own record will pass. Use the SIA’s criminal record indicator, and read Annex A of Get Licensed. If your case is complicated, a solicitor or an adviser can help. This is not legal advice.

What we could not confirm

• Your case. We cannot assess an individual record.
• Annex A. We did not check the full offence list (pages 76 to 132).
• Juvenile grid and the full criteria for sexual offences. We summarised them, not reproduced them.
• Rehabilitation of Offenders Act exemption. We rely on the SIA’s statement that SIA licensing is exempt. We did not read the Exceptions Order.
• Future changes. We found no published proposal to change the criminality criteria after May 2026, but cannot prove there is none.
• Northern Ireland practice. We did not review how the SIA treats Northern Ireland applicants beyond the disclosure body and the Act’s extent.

Sources

Last checked 2 November 2026. Dates are when a page says it was last updated, where it gives one.

• Check if you can get an SIA licence with a criminal record, GOV.UK (19 June 2026)
• Get Licensed, SIA, May 2026 edition (page updated 21 May 2026): PDF, pages 28 to 44, 55 to 61, 65 to 66 and 69 to 70
• The SIA is updating its licensing criteria, SIA (2 December 2025)
• Updates to SIA licensing criteria taking effect on 1 December, SIA (2 October 2025)
• Learn about the SIA licence conditions you must follow, GOV.UK (1 December 2025)
• Apply for an SIA licence, GOV.UK (19 June 2026)
• Find out if you need an SIA licence, GOV.UK (29 January 2026)
• Criminal record indicator, SIA
• Private Security Industry Act 2001, legislation.gov.uk (current version): section 7, section 9, section 10, section 11, section 22, section 26

Changes to this guide

• 28 October 2026: Draft written.

This guide is general information written from the official sources listed above and checked on 2 November 2026. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and Plainfiles is not endorsed by any government body. Rules change, so check the linked official pages for your own situation. Written and designed by Plainfiles with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, then checked against the official legislation and guidance listed in the sources. How we write and check our guides.