How big is the private security sector

A particularly striking feature of research into the private security sector in the UK is the lack of reliable data about the actual size and shape of the industry. This has been noted by a number of authors with a close interest in the private security sector. South (1988: 23) stated that ‘the only consistent and reliable statement that is continually made about the size and the scope of the private security industry today is that it is hard to obtain consistent and reliable information about it’. George (1984: 41) wrote that ‘the Home Office that so often pontificates on the industry cannot even produce a reliable estimate of numbers employed’. This paper gathers together some of the available estimates of the private security sector, and compares them with new information available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and British Telecom's Business Database.