Published by the Security Industry Authority, GOV.UK, the awarding organisations and legislation.gov.uk. The specifications your course is taught from, the guidance on the licence itself, and the law behind both. All free, all linked to the publisher, none of it hosted by us.
An SIA licence-linked qualification is assessed against a specification the Security Industry Authority publishes. It lists, unit by unit, what you are expected to know. Your training provider teaches from it and your awarding organisation writes the exam from it, which means it is the closest thing to a syllabus you will get, and it is free.
Reading one before you book a course is worth an hour. It tells you what the qualification actually covers, how much of it is practical and cannot be done online, and whether you are looking at the right qualification for the work you want.
Practice questions are the other half. A specification tells you the ground to cover; questions tell you which parts you have not covered yet. Our mock tests cite the document each answer comes from, so when a question says the law requires something you can open the source on this page and read the sentence it came from.
Two honest limits. Physical intervention and some conflict management units are assessed by an instructor watching you, and nothing written can substitute for that. And a specification is not a training course: it says what you must know, not how to learn it.
Choosing one brings the specifications written for that qualification to the top. The Acts and Regulations lower down apply to every route, so they stay where they are.
The knowledge every SIA licence-linked qualification shares, whichever role you are training for. It sets out what you must know about the industry, the law, health and safety, fire, emergencies, communication, records, terror awareness and protecting vulnerable people. If you read one document before your course, read this one.
What you are assessed on. The Security Industry Authority publishes a specification for each licence-linked qualification, and every awarding organisation writes its exam against them. They are free, short, and the single most useful thing to read before a course.
Conflict management, which every front line role shares. It is about recognising risk early, defusing a situation with words, and what to do afterwards. Much of it is assessed by watching you take part rather than by written questions.
What a door supervisor must know on top of the common knowledge: searching, licensing law, drugs awareness, queues and crowds, and the equipment used on licensed premises. This is the specification your trainer teaches from and your awarding organisation examines against.
The refresher specification for door supervisors renewing a licence. This replaced the old top up qualification: if you are searching for a top up, this is the document you actually need.
Physical intervention, for door supervisors only. It is taught and assessed in a room with an instructor, not on paper, and no online practice can prepare you for the practical part.
The public space surveillance specification, covering the CCTV code of practice, surveillance techniques, evidence handling and the equipment itself. Note that part of this qualification is a practical assessment no written test can replace.
The security officer equivalent, covering static and patrol work: access and egress, patrolling, personal safety and protection systems. Anyone working towards a security guarding licence is assessed on this.
The refresher specification for security officers renewing a licence, and the replacement for the old security guarding top up.
How the licence itself works, as opposed to the training behind it.
The starting point for licensing itself rather than for training: who needs a licence, what it costs, what disqualifies an application and how to apply. Check it before you book a course, not after.
The document your exam is actually set from, including how many questions each paper has and how long you get. Pearson publishes theirs openly. Highfield does not: their specification is behind a centre login, so if you are training with a Highfield centre, ask them for it rather than trusting a copy on a file sharing site.
The Acts and Regulations the specifications point at, on legislation.gov.uk. You are not expected to read these end to end. They are here because when a practice question tells you what the law says, you should be able to go and check.
These are named rather than quietly left out. If you are searching for one, this is why you cannot find it, and the answer is to ask your training centre rather than to download a copy from a file sharing site that may be years out of date.
Highfield Qualifications: Level 2 Award for Door Supervisors in the Private Security Industry
The qualification page states 'Multiple-choice examinations / Practical Demo' but publishes no downloadable specification. Every candidate URL returned the site's own shell, and the downloads area requires a centre login. No profile seeded; its numbers are NOT approximated from any secondary source.
ProtectUK / NPSA: Counter-terrorism guidance (HOT protocol, 4 Cs, Run Hide Tell)
protectuk.police.uk has been restructured. The home page loads but /advice-and-guidance and every specific guidance path returns 404, and the content appears to be behind a client-rendered application. npsa.gov.uk loads but its home page carries no substantive guidance text. GOV.UK's 'Crowded places guidance' WAS LOCATED AND REJECTED: the page states it was withdrawn on 30 May 2022, and withdrawn guidance must never ground a question.
Security Industry Authority: Conflict Management specification, as a source for CM1 to CM3
The specification's substantive prose describes HOW A TRAINING PROVIDER MUST DELIVER the unit (scenario types to run, that scenarios should cover equality and disability, that trainers must ensure participant safety). It does not state the conflict management knowledge itself. Everything else in the document is objective headings, which D-015 bars. So the SIA specification cannot ground CM1 to CM3 content.
You will find plenty of pages still offering a door supervisor top up or a security guarding top up. Those qualifications are no longer what the SIA accepts for a renewal. They were replaced by refresher qualifications, and the specifications for those are in the list above.
If you are renewing a door supervisor licence you want the Door Supervisor refresher. If you are renewing a security officer licence you want the Security Officer refresher. Check the current requirements on GOV.UK before booking anything, because a course sold under the old name may or may not be the current qualification.
SIA Mock Test UK is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the Security Industry Authority, GOV.UK or any awarding organisation. Practice questions are original and are not live exam questions. This service does not replace mandatory licence-linked training, practical assessment or first-aid requirements. Always confirm current requirements with GOV.UK, your approved training provider and your awarding organisation.