Who needs an SIA licence at a venue.
The Security Industry Authority licenses people who do security work across the UK. At a bar or club, the licence that matters is the door supervisor licence. You need one to guard licensed premises against damage, theft, unauthorised access or disorderly behaviour, and licensed premises means a venue licensed to sell alcohol for drinking on site or to put on regulated entertainment.112
Most security staff need a licence only when they work under a contract. Door supervision is one of two exceptions: in-house or contracted, anyone doing it at a licensed venue needs a licence. It applies while the venue is open to the public and serving alcohol for drinking on site, or putting on regulated entertainment. Doing the work without a licence is an offence for the door supervisor, with up to six months in prison, a fine, or both.1129
Not every job at the entrance is door supervision. The SIA says you don’t need a licence to check that people have paid or have an invitation, to steward by directing people to their seats, the toilets or first aid, or to work as a genuinely unpaid volunteer. The moment someone refuses a guest entry or makes them leave, they need a licence.1
Draw that line in the staff briefing. Scanners scan, and anything that turns into a refusal goes to someone wearing a badge.
The people who do refuse entry need the right kind of licence.
Front-line and non-front-line licences.
There are two kinds of SIA licence. A front-line licence is for anyone who does the work themselves, whatever their job title, so a head of security or a manager who works the door needs one too. Most front-line licences are a plastic photocard worn on duty. A door supervisor licence also covers security guarding, and a close protection licence covers door supervision.1
A non-front-line licence comes as a letter, for people who manage, supervise or employ licensed staff, or direct a company whose staff do licensable work, without doing it themselves. On the SIA’s guidance, directors and managers need one when their business supplies security staff to other organisations under contract, which describes a security company rather than a venue. If you employ your own door team and are unsure about the people who run it, ask the SIA.1
Whichever licence it is, the fee is the same.
What an SIA licence costs, and the training behind it.
An SIA licence costs £204 and lasts three years. A renewal costs the same, the fee isn’t refunded if the application fails, and each extra licence on the same application costs £102.24
| Licence | Fee | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| First licence, such as door supervisor | £204 | Three years |
| Renewal | £204 | Three years |
| Each extra licence on the same application | £102 | Three years |
Before the application comes the training. A first door supervisor licence needs the Level 2 Award for Working as a Door Supervisor in the Private Security Industry, from an approved training provider, gained within the last three years. Scotland has its own version at SCQF Level 6. A first aid qualification comes first, valid for at least another 12 months when the course starts. The SIA no longer accepts BIIAB qualifications granted on or after 11 August 2026, though older ones still count.3
To renew, a door supervisor also needs the Level 2 refresher award, with an Emergency First Aid at Work qualification, or equivalent, in date for another 12 months. Renewals open 4 months before the licence expires, and any time left is added to the new one, so there is nothing to gain by waiting.4
Keep each door supervisor’s expiry date beside their name on the rota. A licence that runs out midweek leaves you a person short at the weekend.
Paying for the licence is the door supervisor’s business, or their employer’s. Checking it is yours.
Check every licence before the first shift.
GOV.UK puts it plainly. You must check that someone has the right security licence before you hire them for security work, and you could be fined or sent to prison if you pay someone to work in security without one. Search the SIA’s public register of licence holders with their 16-digit licence number, or their surname and details such as date of birth and role.6
- The right licenceDoor supervisor, or close protection, which covers door supervision too.
- In dateLicences last three years.
- The right personCompare the photocard with the face in front of you.
- Worn on shiftA front-line licence must be worn where it can be seen while working, and shown to the police or the SIA when they ask.
Wearing the badge is a condition of the licence, and breaking a condition is a criminal offence for the door supervisor. Holders must also tell the SIA within 2 days of a conviction, caution, warning or charge for a relevant offence, so a licence that was clean when you checked it can change. Check again from time to time, not only on the first day.511
Whether you check four badges or forty depends on how you staff the door.
Your own door team, or a security company.
Both work. Employ door staff directly and each needs the same licence a contractor’s staff would, with the checking entirely on you. Use a security company and it supplies the people, its directors and managers may need licences of their own, and supplying unlicensed staff is an offence for the company that can carry up to five years in prison. None of that moves your premises licence conditions off your door, though. They stay yours.11015
The SIA’s Approved Contractor Scheme helps you choose. It is a voluntary quality scheme in which the SIA approves companies, pass or fail, for each activity separately, so check a company is approved for door supervision and not only security guarding. Approved contractors are listed on the SIA’s register, claiming approval falsely is a criminal offence, and an approved contractor can apply for licences on its staff’s behalf.72
- Names and licence numbersBefore each night, so you can check them on the register.
- Numbers and hoursMatching any door supervision condition on your premises licence, to the person and the hour.
- RecordsWho keeps the door log and incident reports, and how quickly you can see them.
- Your house rulesYour admission policy and dress code, and who has the final word on a refusal.
Where those numbers and hours come from your premises licence, the law adds a rule of its own.
When your premises licence asks for door staff.
The Licensing Act 2003 doesn’t put door staff on every licence. Where a premises licence does require people on the premises at set times to carry out security, section 21 adds a mandatory condition that each of them must hold an SIA licence. The requirement can arrive in several ways: as a step you offered in your operating schedule, as a condition agreed later with the police through a minor variation, or as a condition added after a hearing or a review.141316
The Home Office guidance asks councils to work with the SIA and consider such conditions where appropriate. Its examples include door supervision to keep out people who are drunk, drug dealers and people carrying firearms, and SIA-licensed staff controlling entry at large drinking venues to hold a capacity limit.16
Read the exact wording on yours: how many supervisors, from what time, and where. Falling short of it is trading in breach of the licence, an offence that carries up to six months in prison, a fine, or both.1415
The SIA has a second job coming. It is the regulator for Martyn’s Law, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which it expects to come into force in spring 2027, with a standard tier for premises expecting 200 to 799 people at once and an enhanced tier from 800.8
Conditions are half of it. The other half is being able to show you met them.
Keep a door log.
Your premises licence may say what to record at the door, so start there. Either way, keep a record that answers the questions a licensing officer or the police would ask about any night.
- Who workedEach door supervisor’s name, SIA licence number and expiry, and when they started and finished.
- ChecksWhen you last checked each licence on the register.
- IncidentsRefusals, ejections, injuries, first aid and police calls, with times and who dealt with them.
- NumbersHow many people came in and when, against your capacity.
- HandoverWho signed the log off at close, and what the next shift needs to know.
Write it up during the night, dated and signed, never the next morning from memory.
That is the venue’s side. If you are the one going on the door, here is yours.
How to get your own SIA licence.
You must be 18 or over and, in most cases, have the right to work in the UK. Then it runs in this order.2
- First aidGet a first aid qualification with at least 12 months left on it. You need it before the course.
- The courseTake the Level 2 Award for Working as a Door Supervisor with an approved training provider. The awarding body tells the SIA you have passed, and you can’t submit an application until it has.
- Apply onlineCreate an SIA online account and complete all nine sections of the form, starting with your consent to identity and criminal record checks. Check it carefully, because you can’t change it once it is submitted. If your employer is an approved contractor, it can apply for you instead.
- Prove who you areUsually at a Post Office, with one Group A document, such as a passport or photocard driving licence, and two Group B documents, such as a recent bank statement or utility bill, one showing your address. Staff take your photo there, and you can pay the £204 at the same time.
- The checksThe SIA checks your identity, address history and criminal record, and asks for overseas criminal record checks if you have spent 6 continuous months or more outside the UK in the last 10 years.
- The decisionIt arrives by post and in your online account. The SIA can’t say exactly how long it will take, but its decision timescale indicator gives an estimate.
The SIA says your own actions make the biggest difference to how fast it goes. Give complete, correct information, and answer every next steps message and further information request the day it arrives.2
For the rest of what a UK venue runs on, see premises and personal licences, the UK rules page and the guides for London, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast. How to get a liquor licence sets the UK beside the US and Canada, and if you are opening a room of your own, start with how to open a nightclub.