Security Guard Companies UK: 2026 Buyer's Guide

Abdi Kani Mohammed

Priority First Team

September 18, 2026

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11 min

Last updated: 18 September 2026

Security guard companies are SIA-licensed businesses that supply trained officers for manned guarding, keyholding, alarm response and site protection across UK commercial and residential premises. There are roughly 20,000 such firms in the UK, but only around 760 hold SIA Approved Contractor status, and hourly rates typically range from £18 to £30 per officer for standard cover.

Key Takeaways

The UK private security services market remains substantial and is forecast to continue growing over the coming year.
Around 460,000 people held an SIA licence at the end of 2026, a rise of 21% since 2020, spread across roughly 6,500 security companies, per Coredinate citing SIA data (2026).
Standard manned guarding in the UK is commonly priced between £18 and £30 per officer-hour, with specialist cover reaching up to £200 per hour, according to Clearway/Securico Guards (2026).
Only around 760 of the UK's 20,000 security companies hold SIA Approved Contractor status, according to CR2 Security (2026).
Priority First has secured over £1.6 billion in client assets and runs a 24-site portfolio with more than 4,900 photo-backed patrols logged as of August 2026, based on the company's own operational data.

What Are Security Guard Companies?

Security guard companies are commercial businesses that recruit, train and deploy SIA-licensed officers — individuals holding a licence issued by the Security Industry Authority (SIA), the body established under the Private Security Industry Act 2001 to regulate the UK's private security sector. These firms provide manned guarding, mobile patrols, keyholding, alarm response and related protective services to commercial, residential and public sector clients.

The sector is large and fragmented. There are around 20,000 security companies operating in the UK, according to CR2 Security (2026), ranging from single-guard operators to national providers running thousands of officers.

Demand has been rising even as overall industry revenue has been flat. Police-recorded shoplifting in England and Wales reached 530,643 offences in the year to March 2026, the highest figure since current recording practices began in 2003, according to IBISWorld citing police data (2026). Retailers responded by spending a record £1.8 billion on crime prevention in 2023-24, per the British Retail Consortium, cited by IBISWorld (2026).

Individual licensing versus company accreditation

Two separate systems govern this sector, and business buyers frequently confuse them.

Every individual guard performing licensable activity — manned guarding, door supervision, CCTV monitoring in a public space — must hold a personal SIA licence, applied for through GOV.UK's official SIA licence guidance. This is confirmed as a legal requirement under the SIA's Regulated Professions Register entry for security guards.

Separately, the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) is a voluntary, company-level accreditation assessing a firm's business processes, vetting standards and quality management, detailed in the official SIA ACS Self-Assessment Workbook. A firm can employ fully licensed individual guards without itself holding ACS status — which is why buyers should ask both questions separately during procurement.

How Much Do Security Guard Companies Charge in the UK?

UK security guard costs typically range from £35 to £200 per hour depending on service type, with standard manned guarding commonly priced between £18 and £30 per officer-hour, according to Clearway/Securico Guards (2026). Prices vary by region, shift pattern, specialism (close protection, canine, retail) and whether the guard is static or mobile. London and prime central London locations such as Mayfair, Chelsea and Knightsbridge generally sit toward the upper end of this range because of higher wage costs and premium client expectations.

Regional and service pricing comparison

Service type	Typical rate	Notes
Standard static manned guarding	£18–£30/hour	Most common rate band for office and retail cover
Concierge/front-of-house	£20–£35/hour	Higher due to customer-facing and building management skills
Mobile patrol (per visit)	Varies by contract	Cheaper per hour than static cover but less continuous
Specialist/close protection	Up to £200/hour	Reflects higher training, risk and discretion required
Construction site security	£20–£30/hour	Often includes out-of-hours and weekend premiums

Worked scenarios

A mid-size Mayfair office requiring a single officer on a 12-hour day shift, seven days a week, at £25 per hour would sit in the region of £2,100 per week before VAT — a useful illustrative benchmark rather than a fixed quote. A 96-unit care home in Bedfordshire needing continuous overnight cover plus documented patrols is a different calculation entirely; Priority First deployed SIA-licensed officers there specifically because care staff cannot double as a security presence, and the client needed every patrol, incident and handover logged with a photograph, GPS position and timestamp so cover was provable rather than merely asserted.

Ways to reduce costs without cutting corners

Combine services under one contract. Bundling manned guarding with facilities management, keyholding or concierge often reduces total spend versus three separate suppliers.
Use technology to reduce guard-hours, not standards. Photo-backed patrol platforms let one officer cover more checkpoints credibly rather than adding headcount.
Review shift patterns. Static 24/7 cover costs more than a mix of manned presence plus CCTV monitoring and alarm response.
Negotiate contract length. Longer-term contracts typically secure better hourly rates than short-notice or ad hoc cover.

Alternatives to consider

Not every site needs a permanent static guard. CCTV monitoring, mobile patrols, and key holding with alarm response can deliver adequate protection at lower cost for lower-risk premises, while vacant properties often only need scheduled inspections rather than continuous presence.

How Do I Choose the Right Security Guard Company?

Choosing a security guard company means verifying licensing, vetting standards, insurance and contract terms before comparing price. The cheapest quote is rarely the best value once hidden costs — holiday pay, VAT, training gaps — are factored in.

Business buyers should check that every deployed officer holds a valid SIA licence, verifiable via the SIA's regulated professions system. Ask whether the company vets staff to BS 7858 — the British Standard for security screening of individuals employed in a security environment — and confirm public liability insurance levels in writing.

"Approved contractors are demonstrably committed to customer service and the compulsory licensing of their staff. This means their customers can rest assured that every private security operative deployed on their premises will be working within the law" — SIA Approved Contractor Scheme (via JOMU Compliance).

In-house vs outsourced security guards

Factor	In-house security	Outsourced security guard company
Recruitment & training	Business bears full cost and time	Provider absorbs recruitment, licensing and training
Flexibility	Difficult to scale quickly	Cover can flex up or down with contract terms
Compliance burden	Business responsible for licence checks, BS 7858 vetting	Provider manages licensing and vetting as core business
Cover continuity	Sickness/absence directly impacts site	Provider typically manages relief cover
Cost predictability	Variable — includes NI, pension, management overhead	Fixed hourly/contract rate, easier to budget

Most commercial and premium residential buyers in London find outsourcing more practical, particularly where a site needs multiple disciplines — security, concierge, facilities upkeep — under one accountable contract rather than three separate suppliers.

"Our clients kept asking the same question: you are already in the building day and night, why am I paying someone else to look after it? Combining security with facilities management is not diversification for its own sake — it is one accountable team for the whole building instead of three contractors blaming each other." — Mo Hassan, Managing Director, Priority First

What Does Martyn's Law Mean for Security Guard Companies?

Martyn's Law, formally the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act, places a legal duty on qualifying venues to plan for and mitigate the risk of terrorist attacks. Official guidance is published via ProtectUK's Martyn's Law resource, run by UK policing.

Venues that fall within scope will need documented procedures, staff training and, in higher-tier premises, physical security measures — many of which manned guarding providers already deliver as part of standard site protection. Security guard companies are increasingly building Martyn's Law readiness into their service offering, from evacuation planning support to visible deterrence and incident response protocols, because compliance sits at the intersection of facilities management and physical security rather than being a standalone exercise.

Why Does Verified Proof of Patrols Matter More Than Ever?

Verified proof of patrols means documented evidence — photographs, GPS data and timestamps — confirming a guard physically attended a checkpoint, rather than relying on a written occurrence book. This distinction has become central to how sophisticated buyers assess a security guard company's reliability.

Paper-based occurrence books are easy to falsify and impossible to audit retrospectively. A mixed-use development in West London illustrates the problem clearly: the site ran on assumption, with officers reporting rounds complete and the daily book stating "all in order," but nobody could prove which plant room had actually been checked at 3am. Priority First implemented photographed checkpoint patrols across all 152 checkpoints spanning retail, residential, service yards and plant rooms, with every checkpoint requiring a photo, GPS location and timestamp to register as complete. Since going live in February 2026, the site has logged more than 540 patrols in five months across 11 officers, and missed areas now show as visible gaps in the record rather than passing silently.

A separate portfolio-wide deployment across 24 sites and 11-plus field officers replaced paper occurrence books entirely, logging over 4,900 photo-backed patrols, alarm activations with cause and photographic evidence, and shift handovers generated automatically from the shift's real events rather than an officer's memory.

The business case for provable security

Insurance and legal defensibility. Photographic, timestamped records stand up far better under scrutiny following an incident or insurance claim than a signed occurrence book.
Contract accountability. Clients paying for 24/7 cover can verify delivered cover rather than trust an assertion.
Continuity when staff turnover occurs. Site knowledge is captured on a shared platform, not lost when an individual officer leaves — a meaningful concern given that first-time SIA licence applications fell 16% in a single year, from 94,332 in 2026 to 79,455 in 2026, according to Coredinate citing SIA data (2026), signalling tightening recruitment pipelines across the sector.

What Should Go Into a Security Guard Company Contract?

A security guard company contract should specify exact staffing levels, shift patterns, licensing obligations, insurance cover, notice periods and reporting standards in writing before work begins. Vague contracts are the most common source of disputes between clients and providers.

Buyers should confirm the hourly rate is fully loaded — inclusive of holiday pay, National Insurance and VAT — rather than a headline figure that rises once employment costs are added. Contracts should also state how incidents, patrols and deliveries are documented, who holds keys under any keyholding arrangement, and what alarm response times are guaranteed.

Your Security Guard Company Selection Checklist

Confirm every officer's SIA licence is valid via the SIA's regulated professions register.
Ask whether staff are vetted to the BS 7858 screening standard before deployment.
Request evidence of public liability insurance and professional indemnity cover.
Clarify whether patrols are documented with photographs, GPS and timestamps, or rely on a written occurrence book.
Check the fully loaded hourly rate includes holiday pay, NI and VAT, not just a headline figure.
Ask how quickly the provider can onboard a new site and what "live" looks like in week one.
Review the contract's notice period, escalation procedure and named point of contact.
Establish whether the provider can bundle guarding with keyholding, alarm response, CCTV monitoring or facilities management under one accountable contract.

FAQ

How much do security guard companies charge per hour in the UK?

Standard manned guarding in the UK is commonly priced between £18 and £30 per officer-hour, with specialist services reaching up to £200 per hour depending on risk and skill level, according to Clearway/Securico Guards (2026). Rates vary by location, shift pattern and whether cover is static or mobile.

What licence does a security guard company need in the UK?

Every individual guard must hold a personal SIA licence issued under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, applied for via GOV.UK's official guidance. The security guard company itself does not need a licence to trade, but every operative it deploys on licensable activity must be individually licensed.

What is the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme and why does it matter?

The SIA Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) is a voluntary company-level accreditation assessing a security firm's vetting, training and quality management processes. Only around 760 of the UK's roughly 20,000 security companies hold this status, according to CR2 Security (2026), making it a useful filter but not the only measure of a good provider.

How do I choose the best security guard company for my business?

Verify individual SIA licensing, ask about BS 7858 vetting, check insurance cover, and confirm whether patrols are documented with photographic proof rather than a paper occurrence book. Price matters, but a fully loaded rate that includes holiday pay and NI is a more honest comparison than a headline hourly figure.

What is the difference between in-house and outsourced security guards?

In-house security means the business directly employs, trains and manages its own guards, bearing full recruitment and compliance costs. Outsourced security guard companies handle licensing, vetting, training and relief cover under a service contract, which most commercial and residential buyers in London find more predictable and scalable.

What does Martyn's Law mean for security guard companies?

Martyn's Law, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act, requires qualifying venues to plan for and mitigate terrorism risk, with official guidance available via ProtectUK. Security guard companies are increasingly incorporating Martyn's Law readiness — evacuation planning, staff training, visible deterrence — into their standard service offering.

What is the difference between manned guarding and mobile patrols?

Manned guarding places a dedicated SIA-licensed officer continuously on site, while mobile patrols involve an officer visiting multiple sites on a scheduled rota. Manned guarding suits higher-risk or customer-facing sites, while mobile patrols can be a cost-effective option for lower-risk premises requiring periodic checks rather than a constant presence.

Securing Your Site With Priority First

This article has covered how to choose between security guard companies, and Priority First exists precisely to remove the guesswork from that decision — every officer is SIA-licensed, every patrol is documented, and every client contract sits under one accountable team rather than several disconnected suppliers. Whether the requirement is a Mayfair office, a Chelsea residential block, or a Bedfordshire care home needing continuous overnight cover, the same evidence standard applies: checkpoints require a photograph to complete, and missed areas show as gaps in the record rather than passing silently.

Priority First currently runs 24 sites on a single platform with more than 4,900 photo-backed patrols logged, protecting over £1.6 billion in client assets across prime central London, West London, the West Midlands and Bedfordshire.

If your business needs manned guarding backed by provable delivery rather than assurances on paper, get in touch with Priority First's Physical Protection / Manned Guarding team for a tailored quote.

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