UK SIA Licence Fee Rules Change from 1 June 2026

If you've ever tried to read a statutory instrument, you'll know how quickly a simple question can disappear into legal wording. This one, published on legislation.gov.uk and signed by Home Office minister Dan Jarvis on 23 April 2026, is much easier to understand once you strip it back. From 1 June 2026, two money rules change: some people applying for more than one private security licence may get a cheaper rate on extra licences, and firms in the Approved Contractor Scheme will pay a higher annual fee for each licensed worker.\n\nThat matters because these are not abstract changes. They affect what applicants pay when they apply, and what some employers pay each year to remain in the scheme.

The regulations apply across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They were made under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, and the text says the Secretary of State consulted the Scottish Ministers, the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and the Security Industry Authority before making them.\n\nIf you're new to this area, the Security Industry Authority is the regulator that handles these licences. So when the legislation says an application must be 'received by the Authority', that is the moment that decides which fee rules apply.

The clearest change is about people who want more than one licence. According to the explanatory note on legislation.gov.uk, the old system allowed a 50% refund only in fairly narrow circumstances. You needed an earlier licence that still had at least four months left to run, you could not already have had that refund, the extra licence had to be in a different category, and vehicle immobilisation licences were excluded.\n\nFrom 1 June 2026, that refund model is removed. Instead, if you submit one application form asking for two or more licences at the same time, each additional licence after the first is charged under a new rule.

In plain English, the new rule works like this. For most additional licences on the same form, the fee drops to 50% of the standard amount. But if the additional licence is a vehicle immobilisation licence, that discount does not apply and the full fee is still due.\n\nSo the government is replacing a more technical, after-the-event refund system with an upfront discount for bundled applications. For many people, that should be easier to follow and easier to budget for.

This is where the real-world effect becomes clearer. If you already know you need several licences and you put them into one application from the start, you may now pay less on the extra ones. If your extra licence is vehicle immobilisation, you will not get that 50% cut. And if you were relying on the previous rule that looked at how long an existing licence had left to run, that route is being replaced rather than carried over.\n\nWhat this means for you is simple: timing now matters more than before. Apply together, and some applicants save money. Apply separately, or fall into an excluded category, and that saving disappears.

The second change is even more direct. The annual fee in the Approved Contractor Scheme rises from £15 to £25 for each person carrying out licensable conduct. The legislation.gov.uk text does not add a special formula or exemption here; it simply replaces one figure with the other.\n\nFor a small firm, that may look modest. For a larger business, the numbers grow quickly. A company paying for 100 workers would move from £1,500 a year to £2,500, which is an extra £1,000. That helps show why a measure described as low-impact can still be felt in compliance budgets.

The date to remember is 1 June 2026. The updated discount rules apply only where the Security Industry Authority receives the application on or after that date. In other words, the switch is tied to when the regulator gets the form, not when you first started filling it in.\n\nThe explanatory note also says no full impact assessment was produced because the government does not expect a significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sectors. We should read that carefully. Official language like that does not mean no one notices the change. It means ministers do not expect a major sector-wide shock. For workers, employers and anyone teaching this topic, the practical takeaway is clear: from 1 June 2026, bundled licence applications can be cheaper, vehicle immobilisation stays outside that discount, and approved contractors pay more per worker.