We are half way through the year and getting ever closer to the government’s introduction of Professional Investigators Licensing, and with this licence will come the regulation of the industry.
In this post we will be looking at the Top 5 benefits that licensing will bring for both the general public, as well as to the investigation industry itself.
What’s involved in professional investigators licensing?
- Standardisation: With the introduction of a licence comes the need to apply for one. In order to be granted the licence, the investigator will need to have met certain training and background check criteria. For example, a person convicted of any data protection act offences or fraud will never be issued with a Security Industry Authority licence.
- Reputation: The regulators of the industry will be able to weed out the minority of, shall we say “less ethical” investigators, which will improve the reputation of the entire industry. This will not only benefit the genuine reputable investigators, but also start rebuilding the trust of the general public in the business. It will also mean that the Investigators who have a better reputation will be more in demand, so it will most definitely pay to have a good reputation.
- Competency: In order to get a licence, the prospective Private Investigator must have completed some sort of qualification to a required standard, like the EDI or IQ Level 3 Award for Professional Investigators. This means that the customer knows that if an Investigator has a licence, they have a good grounding in the business and knows what they are doing and how to go about doing it to get the best results for the paying client within ethical and legal guidelines.
- Clarity: Investigators that have been awarded the certification will have a framework that they will have to work within. This framework will mean that it will be easier for the investigators to know their boundaries and what they can and can’t do to achieve their results. There will be no “grey” areas and those Investigators who use unscrupulous practices to meet their ends will be found out quickly and dealt with.
- Peace of Mind: The licence is designed to “ensure rigorous standards” within the Investigation industry after recent high profile cases of dubious conduct by investigation companies and will mean that any given customer has the confidence to hire an investigator without worrying about whether or not they are going to be ripped off…and that can only be a good thing.
As you can see here at Alpha 1 Legal Services we are fully behind the introduction of reasonable regulation of the industry.
