How security pricing actually works
Almost all UK manned security is priced one of three ways, and knowing which you are being quoted is the difference between comparing suppliers and guessing.
Hourly rate per officer. The standard model for static guarding, concierge and event cover. Quoted per officer per hour, usually with a minimum shift length — four hours is common, and some providers will not book below eight. Overnight, weekend and bank holiday hours normally carry an uplift.
Per patrol visit. Mobile patrols are priced by the visit rather than by the hour, because the unit is covering multiple sites in a night. A schedule of two to four randomised visits per night is typical, and the cost per site falls as you add locations to the same route.
Per assignment or project. Event security, one-off deployments and vacant property packages are often quoted as a total against a defined scope — a run-of-show, an inspection schedule, a build programme.
A quote you cannot decompose into one of these is a quote you cannot compare.
What actually drives the number
Hours and shift pattern. The single biggest factor. Nights, weekends and bank holidays cost more, and short shifts cost more per hour than long ones because travel and briefing are fixed costs spread over fewer hours.
Number of officers. A two-officer requirement is not simply double — but it is close, because the cost is overwhelmingly labour.
Licence and vetting level. All officers must be SIA-licensed. Additional requirements — enhanced DBS, CCTV (public space surveillance) licensing, first aid, fire marshal, specific site inductions — narrow the pool and raise the rate.
Specialist capability. K9 units, close protection and control-room operators are priced above standard guarding because the training and equipment behind them cost more.
Location and travel. Central London differs from outer boroughs, and both differ from a rural site an hour from the nearest officer.
Notice period. Same-day and emergency cover carries a premium, because it means pulling someone from rest or reassigning a scheduled officer.
Commitment. Ongoing cover is cheaper per hour than ad-hoc booking. That is a genuine efficiency, not a lock-in tactic — a predictable rota is cheaper to staff.
The arithmetic behind a suspiciously cheap quote
This is the most useful thing on this page, and almost nobody in the industry will tell you it.
Work out what a provider must be paying before they make a penny. Start with the current National Living Wage — check the present rate, it changes each April — then add employer's National Insurance, pension auto-enrolment, holiday pay accrued at 12.07% of hours worked, employer's liability and public liability insurance, SIA licensing, training, uniform, supervision and management overhead.
By the time all of that is on top, the true cost per officer-hour is substantially above the headline wage. If a quote sits at or near the National Living Wage, the sums do not work. Something is being left out.
Usually it is one of these: officers engaged as bogus self-employed to avoid NI and holiday pay, unpaid or underpaid handover time, no genuine supervision, inadequate insurance, or officers working hours that breach the Working Time Regulations. Each of those is a risk that lands on you as the client if something goes wrong on your site.
You are not buying an hourly rate. You are buying the certainty that the person on your site is licensed, insured, rested and accountable.
What to ask any security provider before you compare quotes
Is the rate all-inclusive? Confirm whether travel, holiday cover, supervision, equipment and management are inside the rate or billed separately.
What is the minimum shift and the minimum term? A cheaper hourly rate with an eight-hour minimum is more expensive than a higher rate with a four-hour minimum, if you only need four.
What are the uplifts? Nights, weekends, bank holidays, short notice. Get them in writing.
Are officers employed or subcontracted? If subcontracted, ask who actually attends and who carries the insurance.
Can you evidence licensing and insurance? SIA licence numbers are checkable on the public register. Ask before you book, not after an incident.
Is the company SIA Approved Contractor Scheme approved? The SIA licenses individuals; ACS is the voluntary company-level accreditation. It is a legitimate differentiator and it is publicly verifiable.
What reporting do I get, and when? Patrol logs, checkpoint times and incident reports should be available the same night, not compiled into a monthly summary.
Why we don't publish a rate card
Because a rate card for manned security is either wrong or misleading, and usually both. The honest version of "how much does security cost" is that it depends on hours, headcount, location, capability and notice — and any provider showing you a single number before understanding those is selling you a number rather than a service.
What we will do is give you a specific figure quickly. Tell us the address, the hours, what you are protecting and when you need cover, and you get a real quote against your actual requirement rather than a range you then have to negotiate away from.
We would rather scope it honestly than win the job by underselling the cover and revisiting the price later.
