Shortage of bouncers could stop clubs reopening

Venues such as bars and nightclubs may not be able to open as planned if they cannot find enough bouncers to supervise them, the body representing security staff has said.

After a year of closure many security staff have moved into other work.

Some staff who are not UK nationals have returned to their home countries following Brexit and the pandemic.

More than half of positions may not be filled, the UK Door Security Association (UKDSA) said.

The UKDSA is calling for new, more rigorous training regulations, due to come in in April, to be postponed to help agencies recruit new security staff more quickly.

"I imagine it's going to be more pressured when we reopen," said Stuart Glen, who runs The Cause, a nightclub in north London.

"When we go back on 21 June every operator in our field, every festival, nightclub, bar, restaurant, theatre, every event has been gagging to get back on track and suddenly everyone is going to say we need security staff."

Stuart Glen is concerned it could be hard to find enough security staff to re-open

Having the correct ratio of security staff is a condition of holding a licence to operate, he added.

"If we can't find the staff then we physically can't open. It's a major issue," Mr Glen said.

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From 1 April security staff must have first aid qualifications before taking the training required to be a door supervisor, according to the Security Industry Authority, the government's regulatory body for the sector.

There are additional training requirements related to terror threats and emergencies, the use of body-worn video recorders, and breathalysers. Some of the new requirements start in April, some in October.

The UKDSA said it supported the additional elements in the new training regime but said it was "deeply concerned about the timing of these changes and the impact on front-line staffing levels".

Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said: "We rely heavily on licensed door supervisors to keep staff and customers safe.

"With the additional responsibility of public health… it is even more important that we remove barriers to ensure that we are able to fulfil the resource requirement.

"This will need a government intervention to ensure that the industry has the ability to provide enough staff. While the training is welcomed, it is not timely given the current economic situation across most of the sector, and consideration needs to be given to it being pushed back to 2022."

The extent to which non-UK nationals working the industry have returned overseas, further reducing the pool of available staff, is hard to quantify.

However academic studies have found there was a significant exodus of foreign-born UK residents between 2019 and 2020.