A statutory instrument has been laid in Parliament that would designate the Security Industry Authority as a prescribed person for whistleblowing purposes under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. In its 1 May 2026 statement, the Authority said the measure is subject to parliamentary scrutiny and would take effect on 2 June 2026 if approved. (gov.uk) The SIA said the move responds to a gap it had asked to be closed. In policy terms, the change would place the private security regulator inside the same prescribed-person framework already used elsewhere when workers need to raise concerns outside their employer. (gov.uk)
Department for Business and Trade guidance says a worker can obtain protection for a disclosure made to a prescribed person where the worker reasonably believes the matter is in the public interest, falls within that body's remit and is substantially true. The SIA says its new designation would allow workers in the private security industry to make disclosures to the regulator about unlawful activity with the legal protection attached to whistleblowing. (gov.uk) That point matters in practice because the legal protection depends in part on using an authorised reporting channel. Prescribed-person status therefore changes the route of disclosure, not just the label attached to the regulator. (gov.uk)
The change is closely aligned to the Authority's current functions. GOV.UK describes the SIA as the regulator of the UK's private security industry, established under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, with responsibilities including licensing certain roles, approving private security companies, carrying out inspections, monitoring conduct and taking enforcement action where necessary. (gov.uk) Once the instrument is in force, the body receiving whistleblowing disclosures would also be the body with the sector-specific regulatory powers most likely to assess and pursue them. For compliance teams, that creates a clearer external escalation route for allegations tied to licensable activity and regulatory breaches. (gov.uk)
For employers, labour providers and security contractors, the operational issue is preparedness before 2 June 2026. Internal policies should distinguish between ordinary grievances, criminal or regulatory concerns, and qualifying public interest disclosures, and should make clear when the SIA may be the appropriate external recipient. The SIA has said further guidance will be issued when the instrument is commenced. (gov.uk) For workers, the threshold remains legal rather than rhetorical. DBT guidance makes clear that not every complaint is whistleblowing: protection depends on the subject matter of the concern, the public interest test and the route used to report it. (gov.uk)
There is also a territorial caveat. DBT's published guidance states that the whistleblowing framework described there applies in Great Britain and that whistleblowing law is different in Northern Ireland. Because the SIA regulates across the UK, the most cautious reading of the current government material is that the immediate effect of this change sits most clearly within England, Scotland and Wales unless separate Northern Ireland provision is identified. (gov.uk) That distinction is likely to matter for multi-site operators and contractors running a single compliance process across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Their reporting policies may need jurisdiction-specific wording once the SIA publishes its detailed guidance. (gov.uk)
The next formal step is commencement. The Authority's statement points to 2 June 2026 as the intended start date, subject to final scrutiny, and says further information will be published when the instrument comes into force. (gov.uk) After designation, the SIA would enter the wider prescribed-person reporting system outlined by DBT. Government guidance says most prescribed persons must publish annual reports covering the number of disclosures received, cases taken forward and the effect those disclosures have had on their work. That should give the private security sector a more visible record of how regulatory intelligence from workers is being handled. (gov.uk)