Sia licence cost: UK Security Guard Cost Floor
The UK Security Guard Cost Floor carries 4 published figures read from 4 sources' own pages, from 12.71 to 204 GBP, read 28 October 2026.
4 of the 4 named sources read in full publish a figure; 3 publish none, read 28 October 2026.
By component
| Breakdown | Median | Range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| componentemployer-ni-secondary-threshold-per-week | 96GBP | 96 to 96GBP | 1 |
| componentnational-living-wage-per-hour | 12.71GBP | 12.71 to 12.71GBP | 1 |
| componentreal-living-wage-uk-per-hour | 13.45GBP | 13.45 to 13.45GBP | 1 |
| componentsia-licence-fee-three-years | 204GBP | 204 to 204GBP | 1 |
Every figure, with its source
One row per published figure: the figure as the source's own page publishes it, the page, and the day it was read. A figure that is not on a page we read is not on this one.
| Source | Figure | Breakdown | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIA: licence fee rebate ends in April 2026 | 204GBP | sia-licence-fee-three-years | 2026-10-28 |
| HMRC: NI rates and allowances | 96GBP | employer-ni-secondary-threshold-per-week | 2026-10-24 |
| Living Wage Foundation: the real Living Wage | 13.45GBP | real-living-wage-uk-per-hour | 2026-10-12 |
| GOV.UK: National Living Wage increases to £12.71 | 12.71GBP | national-living-wage-per-hour | 2026-10-24 |
The sentence each figure was read from (4)
- SIA: licence fee rebate ends in April 2026, read 2026-10-28:
Both first-time applications and renewals will cost £204 from 1 April 2026.
- HMRC: NI rates and allowances, read 2026-10-24:
Secondary Threshold (ST) Employers start paying National Insurance £96 £96 £175 £175 £175
- Living Wage Foundation: the real Living Wage, read 2026-10-12:
UK Living Wage £13.45 London Living Wage £14.80 The real Living Wage remains the only UK Wage rate to be independently calculated and rooted in the cost of living.
- GOV.UK: National Living Wage increases to £12.71, read 2026-10-24:
National Living Wage increases to £12.71 per hour
Read in full, publishes no figure
3 named sources were read in full on the dates shown and print no usable figure. They are counted, never filled in.
- SIA: April 2026 change to the licence fee, read 2026-10-28: every candidate on the page was refused
- SIA: renew your licence, read 2026-10-28: every candidate on the page was refused
- PSIA 2001 Schedule 2, read 2026-10-28: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
Methodology
Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2).
4 of the 4 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 3 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 8 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere.
The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in GBP (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 214 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded.
The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): the statutory cost of a guard-hour: the National Living Wage, employer NI above the secondary threshold, the 3% employer pension minimum, 12.07% holiday accrual and the SIA licence spread over its three years, beside the Real Living Wage and ONS earnings for the occupation
214 candidate sentences on these pages were refused by a reviewer; each refusal and its reason is recorded in the review ledger.
Sources (12)
- GOV.UK: national minimum wage rates(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK: National Living Wage increases to £12.71(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Low Pay Commission: the National Minimum Wage in 2026(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- SIA: licence fee rebate ends in April 2026(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- SIA: April 2026 change to the licence fee(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- SIA: renew your licence(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Private Security Industry Act 2001(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- PSIA 2001 Schedule 2(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- HMRC: NI rates and allowances(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK: workplace pension contributions(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- ONS ASHE Table 14: earnings by occupation(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Living Wage Foundation: the real Living Wage(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
Cite or embed this figure
The UK Security Guard Cost Floor carries 4 published figures read from 4 sources' own pages, from 12.71 to 204 GBP, read 28 October 2026.
4 of the 4 named sources read in full publish a figure; 3 publish none, read 28 October 2026.
UK Security Guard Cost Floor, component employer-ni-secondary-threshold-per-week: median 96 GBP across 1 source, read 28 October 2026.
UK Security Guard Cost Floor, component national-living-wage-per-hour: median 12.71 GBP across 1 source, read 28 October 2026.
UK Security Guard Cost Floor, component real-living-wage-uk-per-hour: median 13.45 GBP across 1 source, read 28 October 2026.
UK Security Guard Cost Floor, component sia-licence-fee-three-years: median 204 GBP across 1 source, read 28 October 2026.
Cite as: "securityguardcost.co.uk UK Security Guard Cost Floor", updated 2026-10-29, https://securityguardcost.co.uk/datasets/uk-security-guard-cost-floor/.
Download the CSV (4 rows, computed 2026-10-29)