BS102000: The Provision of Investigatory Services

Following the House of Commons Select Committee report of: 2012 into the Regulation of Private Investigators: “An inquiry into the case for statutory regulation of private investigators”. The assumption was that a simple licensing process would be, “Rolled out”…

The British Standards Institution in their consultation document of March 2013 – then revealed that Private Investigators will have the opportunity to attain: British Standard 102000.

 

In simple terms, if you supply investigative services you need to think about bringing your business or trading entity up to the standard and thereby prove your own personal competency.

The standard is high and is comparable with the requirements needed to join the trade associations..…you will need to adhere to a code of conduct, have knowledge of relevant legislation, conduct due diligence, staff and subcontractors should be selected and screened under: BS 7858 (Staff need: A Basic Disclosure Criminal Conviction Check, etc.). Above and beyond the requirements, mentioned above, there is a requirement under this standard to have a complaints procedure in place, to pay bills on time, have suitable insurances in place and so on.

Pivotal to the British Standard is that you (and your staff) are fully aware of relevant legislation and required due diligence as well as being conversant with the processes around investigations, specifically around knowledge of planning, resourcing, and gathering information whilst conducting an investigation.

Training centres that offer the L3 Awards in Professional Investigation have noticed the symmetry between their existing syllabus and the proposed components of the competency requirements in BS Standard 102000…specifically, the Code of practice for the provision of investigative services directs that before an investigator conducts activities, the necessary competence has been demonstrated in:

  • Conducting investigations
  • Conducting interviews
  • Searching for information and preserving evidence
  • Surveillance techniques
  • Understanding and working to relevant laws and standards
  • Ability to report findings

 

Continual Professional Development is also a requirement of the new standard.

We are available throughout your investigation career – offering further learning, training and real work opportunities. Look at our process server and other training options to expand your skill set. We support and assist. The SFJ Awards we offer are listed on the ofqual register which regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments.

British Standard 102000:2013 has been superseded by: British Standard 102000:2018

The revised standard has been tweaked to include best practice around surveillance, data mining technologies and open source social media searches.