THE BRITISH Security Industry Association (BSIA) has elected popular broadcaster and campaigner Nick Ross CBE to serve as the Trade Association’s new president. Ross replaces Sir Keith Povey QPM, who retires as BSIA president after 14 years in the role.

Ross assumed the post of president on Wednesday 19 April at the Trade Association’s Annual General Meeting in London. Going forward, his primary goal will be to continue the work focused on developing the relationship between the police service and the private security industry.

Starting out as a junior reporter while still at university, Ross covered the troubles in Northern Ireland for the BBC and then moved on to host programmes including Radio 4’s The World at One, PM and The World Tonight.

He became a TV reporter, documentary director and political correspondent and chaired live debates, but was perhaps best known for the crime appeals programme Crimewatch, which he presented for over two decades.

Ross conceived the new discipline of ‘crime science’, which focuses on practical, multidisciplinary and outcomes-focused approaches to crime reduction. He also founded the Jill Dando Institute at UCL, which has since grown into one of the largest academic crime prevention departments in the world.

THE NEW ‘failure to prevent fraud’ offence proposed by the Home Office will make it easier to prosecute a large organisation if an employee commits fraud for that organisation’s benefit. If an act of fraud is committed by an employee of an organisation, that organisation must be able to demonstrate it had reasonable measures in place to deter the offending or otherwise risk receiving an unlimited fine.

The proposed legislation, to be introduced through the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, encourages businesses to do more to deter offending, which will help in the bid to cut crime and protect consumers, investors, other businesses and the taxpayer from fraudulent practices.

The Home Office has tabled an amendment to introduce the failure to prevent fraud offence, which is actively supported by the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat observed: “We are determined to crack down on unscrupulous companies that seek to defraud their customers. Our new ‘failure to prevent fraud’ offence will protect consumers from dishonest and misleading sales practices, and also level the playing field for the majority of businesses that behave responsibly.”

Further, Tugendhat noted: “This Government is committed to fighting economic crime, as demonstrated by our recently launched Economic Crime Plan 2, which sets out how we will give law enforcement more state-of-the-art resources to tackle high-level offending.”

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MITIE HAS moved to further develop its security intelligence offer with the acquisition of the Linx International Group – itself a highly respected risk management consulting business, which also provides technical and management training to the security industry – in a £1.2 million deal.

The acquisition is on a debt-free, cash-free basis. For the 12 months ending in December 2022, the Linx International Group generated revenues of £2.5 million and a profit before tax of £0.2 million. The business lists gross assets of £3.6 million.

Underpinned by over 35 years’ experience of delivering unrivalled security consultancy and training services, the Linx International Group is formed of three service lines, which will now form part of the Mitie Security offer.

Linx Consulting provides a range of specialist security, risk management and investigative services to international clients. These include security risk assessments, security design, fraud and commercial malpractice investigations, contingency planning and crisis management.

The consulting team works with clients in all sectors and of all sizes and is retained as a specialist advisor by several household names in the fast-moving consumer goods, electronics and pharmaceutical sectors.

PerpetuityARC provides extensive security management training, covering everything from security risk assessments to kidnap and ransom management. It was also the first private company to offer a Master’s degree in International Security and Risk Management, which is delivered in partnership with the University of West London. Further, PerpetuityARC is the exclusive education partner for The Security Institute.

Tavcom provides award-winning technical security skills training, offering over 100 technical training courses for installers, operators, managers and designers of security systems. These courses cover a range of disciplines such as system design, installation and maintenance for video surveillance systems, fire alarms and access control solutions.

Tavcom also manages the Certified Technical Security Professionals Register for electronic security and fire systems practitioners.

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