Standards and Codes of Practice for Security Services
What the exam tests
Licensing is only the entry ticket; this domain tests the service-quality and conduct obligations that sit behind the licence. Questions probe what a PSA standard requires of a contractor, what assignment instructions are for, and what professional conduct means in practice.
Core requirements
- PSA standards are mandatory conditions of the licence, not advisory guidance. They cover service delivery, staff competence and training records, supervision, uniforms and identification, record keeping, complaints handling and insurance.
- Contractors must issue written assignment instructions (site orders) to every operative. These are site-specific and cover access control, patrol routes, alarm response, key control, reporting lines and emergency procedures.
- A code of conduct for operatives requires honesty, no excessive force, no discrimination, confidentiality about client business, refusal of improper gifts, sobriety and fitness for duty, and full reporting of incidents.
- Supervision and audit: contractors must monitor their own staff and cooperate with PSA inspections.
Worked example
An operative is posted to a retail store and told by a shop assistant to search customers' bags at the door. Reasoning: there is no general power to search a person; a search needs consent or specific lawful authority, and staff cannot create that authority informally. The operative should decline, request written assignment instructions from the contractor, and if bag checks are genuinely intended, have the client's policy documented and consent-based, with refusal handled by refusing entry rather than by force.
Mark-losing traps
- Treating standards as optional good practice.
- Assuming a client's manager can lawfully order an operative to exceed the operative's legal powers.
- Working without assignment instructions and improvising.
- Discussing client business or incidents with outsiders.