Security Personnel Permit Examination: Legal Powers, Permit Rules and Operational Duties
What this domain tests
The Security Personnel Permit (SPP) examination is the written assessment attached to the SGSIA-recognised basic training course (commonly 16 hours) that a candidate must pass before the Hong Kong Police issue a permit under the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance (Cap. 460). Questions are applied, not academic: they place you at a lobby desk, a loading bay or a fire exit and ask what you may lawfully do. Marks are lost by assuming police-style powers.
Your legal status
- An SPP holder is a private citizen with contractual duties to the client. There is no power to demand an identity card, to search a bag or a person, or to detain anyone for questioning.
- Bag checks at an entrance rest on consent or a condition of entry. If the person refuses, you may refuse entry or ask them to leave; you may not physically search them.
- Arrest: section 101 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance (Cap. 221) allows any person to arrest without warrant a person reasonably suspected of an arrestable offence. State the reason, use only minimum force, and hand the person to the police without delay. Delay can itself become false imprisonment.
- Force is lawful only in self-defence, defence of others or effecting a lawful arrest, and must be proportionate.
Permit rules
- Two licences work together: the company must hold a security company licence, and each guard must hold an individual SPP.
- Type A permits cover security work at one specified premises; Type B permits cover any premises. Working a second site on a Type A permit is an offence.
- Carry your permit on duty and produce it on demand to a police officer or authorised officer.
Worked example
A guard sees a shopper conceal goods and walk past the tills. Theft is an arrestable offence, so an arrest under section 101 is available where the suspicion is reasonable and based on what the guard personally observed. He identifies himself, states that the person is arrested and why, calls police, uses force only if resisted, does not search the person, preserves CCTV and writes a timed notebook entry. If the facts were merely that the shopper "looked suspicious", no arrest could be made.
Traps
Confusing detention with arrest; believing a guard may search a person after arrest (only police may); ejecting a trespasser with more force than necessary; accepting "lucky money" (Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, Cap. 201); mishandling visitor logs or CCTV footage (Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, Cap. 486).