The SIA inspection, start to finish

Who inspects, and what they are checking

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) is the regulator for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. Once the Act is in force, expected in spring 2027 with the exact date still to be confirmed, its inspectors will be able to visit qualifying premises to check that the duties are being met. The SIA has already run pilot inspections to test its approach and has said a second round is planned, but it can't take enforcement action until the duties are in force.

It also helps to be clear what an inspection is for. At Standard Tier the Act asks for procedures and awareness, and nothing requires you to buy equipment, so an inspector isn't walking round looking for cameras, barriers or door supervisors. They are checking that someone is responsible for the premises, that workable procedures exist for this actual building, and that the people with a role in those procedures know what their role is.

The 72 hours' written notice is in the Act

Start with the part venues worry about most, because it is also the most reassuring. To enter premises without a warrant, an inspector must give the occupier at least 72 hours' notice in writing (Schedule 3, para 4). That is not an SIA policy or a courtesy that could quietly be dropped; it is a condition written into the Act itself. A routine inspection therefore arrives on paper, days ahead, and tells you it is coming.

Seventy-two hours sounds short if you imagine building everything from nothing inside that window. It is ample if the records already exist, which is the whole argument for keeping them in good order long before anyone writes to you.

The exception: entry with a warrant

There is one route past the notice period. A justice can issue a warrant allowing entry without notice, but only where satisfied that specific conditions are met: for example that an ordinary inspection has been frustrated, that giving notice would defeat the object of the visit, or that the matter is urgent (Schedule 3, para 5).

In plain terms, the no-notice route exists for situations where something is being hidden or genuinely cannot wait. It is not the everyday path, and an ordinary venue keeping ordinary records has no reason to expect it.

What an inspector can do on the day

Schedule 3 lists the powers an inspector can use at the premises: inspecting the building, observing what happens there, viewing documents and taking copies, asking for an explanation of them, taking measurements and photographs, and asking for reasonable assistance (Schedule 3, para 4(1)). Separately from any visit, the SIA can also require information or answers in writing through an information notice (Schedule 3, para 3).

Two things follow from that list. First, the visit is document-led: most of those powers are about reading, copying and understanding records, which is why the state of your paperwork matters more than the state of your paintwork. Second, cooperation is the only sensible posture, since intentionally obstructing an inspector is a criminal offence (Schedule 3, para 11). Neither point should alarm anyone. Together they describe a regulator doing a records check with legal backing, not a raid.

What an inspector would reasonably ask to see

The guidance does not publish a fixed inspection checklist, so treat this as a reasonable reading of what the duties imply rather than an official script. An inspector checking Standard Tier duties would sensibly want:

• The four procedures, in writing. A written record is not legally required at Standard Tier (statutory guidance, para 7.32), but an inspection is precisely the moment a written one earns its keep: it turns "we have procedures" from an assertion into something a stranger can read. Our guide to whether a written plan is required covers the trade-off honestly.
• Versions and review dates. Which write-up is current, when it was last looked at, and what changed. A dated, versioned record shows the procedures are alive rather than a one-off exercise.
• The awareness record. Staff with a role must be made aware of the procedures and their specific part in them (statutory guidance, para 7.51). A simple log of who was made aware, of which version, and when, is the natural evidence, especially where staff turn over.
• Your capacity basis. The number you rely on for your tier and the method behind it, whether that is a safe-occupancy figure or your busiest real day. How you counted your numbers is the foundation every other answer rests on.
• Who is responsible, and your notification details. The name of the responsible person and the details you gave, or will give, the SIA when the notification window opens.

Notice what is absent: certificates, course attendance, equipment invoices, consultant reports. None of those is a Standard Tier duty.

What happens afterwards

For a venue whose records hold up, the answer is: nothing. The visit ends and life goes on.

Where an inspector finds a shortfall, the SIA's first formal tool is a compliance notice. It must set out the reasons, it can require specified steps within a specified period, and you get the chance to make representations before one is given (s.13). Take the steps listed, in the time given, and that is normally the end of the matter.

Money sits further down the road, and it is bounded. The maximum civil penalty at Standard Tier is £10,000 (s.18(1)), and daily penalties of up to £500 apply only to continuing contravention of a compliance or restriction notice, in other words to carrying on ignoring the regulator after being formally told what to put right (s.19). The full ladder for both tiers is in our guide to penalties and fines.

How to prepare, calmly

The honest answer is that you do not prepare for an inspection in the 72-hour window; you prepare months earlier, in an afternoon, by doing the ordinary work the Act asks for and writing it down as you go. If you have not started, the step-by-step checklist takes a venue through it in order, and if you are not yet sure the Act touches you at all, the free tier checker settles that in about a minute.

After that, preparation is just upkeep: keep the procedures dated and versioned, keep the awareness log current as people join and leave, and keep a note of how you counted. That maintained record is what MartynsLawPack exists to produce, and the statutory guidance on GOV.UK is free if you would rather build and maintain it by hand. Either way, when a letter does arrive one day, the 72 hours are for reading it with a cup of tea, not for a scramble.