SIA licence verification time: what you still check by hand

Verifying an SIA licence takes time at three points: recording the number and expiry, checking the number on the SIA public register, and tracking the renewal date. ShiftTracker can take over most of the recording and all the renewal tracking. It does not check licences against the SIA itself. We found no published time-saved figure for this work, so this guide neither gives nor invents one. Instead it shows where the manual time goes, which steps a verified licence document removes, and which checks stay with your team. The main point to understand is that a licence typed onto an officer record is not enough. Only a verified licence document raises expiry alerts and refuses a shift that falls after expiry. Read the steps below, then measure the time on your own officer list in a demo before you set any internal target or promise a saving to a client.

Where does manual SIA verification time go?

Manual verification has three parts: typing the licence number and expiry into a record, checking the number on the SIA public register, and diarising the expiry so a renewal is not missed. The expiry diary is the step most exposed to someone forgetting it, because it depends on a date kept in a spreadsheet or in memory.

How long each check takes depends on your process and the number of officers you carry, so measure it on your own list rather than relying on a published average. The check is the same for every licence, which makes it a good candidate for a written checklist even before you choose software.

What does ShiftTracker record, and what does it check?

ShiftTracker records SIA licences and their expiry dates. It does not check licences against the SIA register. A person checks each number on the register, then an Agency Admin presses Verify, which copies the number, type and expiry onto the officer's roster record. Valid on a ShiftTracker screen means only that the typed expiry date has not passed.

Only an Agency Admin can press Verify. An Agency Coordinator can add officers and upload documents, but Verify is the step that counts. The SIA Compliance Report lists every officer with licence number, type, expiry and status, and includes an Open SIA Public Register button for the manual check.

Which steps does a verified licence trigger?

A verified licence document drives two automatic actions: expiry alerts and a check against the shift date. Agency Admins and Coordinators are notified when a credential is within 30 days or within 7 days of expiry. An officer whose licence lapses before a shift is refused for that shift, and the platform offers no override for that check.

A licence typed onto the officer record alone produces no alert, and the compliance summary shows no data for that officer. Set the expiry on the document when you upload it, because the alert reads that date. Once everything is verified, every officer should read Valid on the report, with none in the Expiring Soon counter.

Where does the time saving show up most?

The clearest gains are in onboarding new officers, where the licence is a final check before the first shift, and in renewal clusters, where several licences fall due in the same months. Multi-site operations gain too, because one record feeds every roster instead of several spreadsheets. We have no published figure for any of these gains.

If a contract starts in April, renewals that fall in the months before it can land on the same people in the same weeks. Plan the uploads and verification for those months, not for the week the contract starts.

What do the standard and the SIA rules require?

BS 7858:2019 is a code of practice for screening people who work in secure environments. According to BSI, firms that want to join the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme must show compliance with relevant British Standards, including BS 7858. Gov.uk states that an SIA licence does not renew automatically, so each expiry date needs an owner.

This section sets out process, not legal advice. Check your own obligations under the SIA rules and your contract requirements with a qualified adviser before you change how you record licences.

How we checked this, and what to test next

We read ShiftTracker's SIA licence verification, document expiry and officer compliance guides, the gov.uk renewal guidance and the BSI standard summary, on 31 October 2026. The steps above come from those pages. To test your own process, verify one licence, set one expiry inside 30 days and check which Agency Admin or Coordinator receives the alert.