You will need to pass all of our application checks to become an approved contractor.

We can help you with your ACS application. Before you seek advice from third party consultants, please contact us.

You cannot be an SIA approved contractor unless all of the following apply to you:

We will check the identity, criminality, financial probity and integrity of the people running your business (often referred to as ‘controlling minds’).

We will take into consideration:

All directors must hold a valid SIA licence. This includes executive and non-executive directors, shadow directors, parent company directors and corporate entities holding a directorship.

All security operatives you deploy must hold a valid SIA licence.

There are two ways to become approved: standard and passport. It is up to you which one you choose.

Either way will involve one of our approved assessing bodies, so you should talk to them as well. They may have a view on which route would work best for you.

We charge two different types of fee:

The application fee varies depending on the number of licensable staff in your organization:

The registration fee is the same for everyone: £15 per licensable individual deployed

You will also need to pay your assessing body for your assessment.

We do not usually assess you directly, although we can if we need to. Instead, we ask assessing bodies to conduct the assessment of your organisation on our behalf.

The assessing bodies we are partnered with are:

All ACS assessors must abide by our ACS assessor code of conduct (PDF, 86.6 KB, 3 pages).

You should not proceed with a standard route ACS assessment until we tell you to.

We accept the passport scheme shown below.

NSI ACS Passport Scheme

This scheme covers the following licensable activities:

If you have any enquiries regarding the ACS, please submit these through your online business account (select ‘Help’). If you do not have a business account you can register for one.

Or you can call us on 0300 123 9298.

You may choose to use a consultant to help you with your ACS application. If you do, we recommend that you research and assess potential suppliers before choosing them. This will help you to determine the best option for your organisation, and also help to ensure you get value for money.

We do not train, approve, or enter into any commercial relationship with consultants. You should beware of any consultants who claim to have any such relationship with us.

We will not discuss your application with any consultants you use. We will only communicate with the contacts we have on file for your company.

Published 18 August 2020
Last updated 24 February 2025 + show all updates