Response from Vernon Coaker

Well, I wasn't prepared for the response Ive had from Mr Coaker, although I should have expected it, being from the Home Office after all.
It was less than enthusiastic to say the least.
All he has done is quote the Private Security Act 2001, and the self-defence 'reasonable force' laws.
I might have just as well got some random person off the street to comment on the letter I sent, I probably would have had a better response to be honest.

The full response from Mr Coaker will be available on the new APSO site once it is back up and running.

I should have posted this the other day...

... but I've had family things to deal with.
As you will notice in my previous post, I emailed both Jacqui Smith MP and David Davis MP, however, Mr Davis has now left his post as both Shadow Home Secretary and Member of the Conservative Party.
So Im now left with a bit of a dilemma: Do I wait to see who is taking his place as Shadow Home Secretary and email them, or do I wait to see if I get any kind of response from the Conservatives first, as they may forward the email onto someone who would be able to comment further on it.

Politicians huh!

I heard it through the grapevine...

..aka securityoracle forums lol.
I've heard today, whether it's just rumour or not I'm not fully aware, although it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, that when The SIA moved their callcentre operations from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Liverpool at the end of 2007, they reduced the number of incoming call lines to the callcentre staff because 'if there are less lines, then less people will be on hold, removing frustration at being on hold for so long'.
Now, having worked in a callcentre in the past as a calltaking spacemonkey, thats just bad practice.
If the account I worked on (can't mention what one, still covered by official secrets act) had that approach, the callcentre would have lost the contract within weeks. As it was, calls kept on hold, even if we were placing them on hold to find out some information, were charged to our company by the second, so if we had put people on hold for as long as we have been kept on hold with the SIA since its inception, the bill would have run into the millions by now.

I've just had a quick google for information on this, and instead I found the press release from the SIA regarding the £23 Million 4 year contract they signed with BT in 2003 for them to create the original callcentre and application processing centre in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but lo and behold, nothing about the move to Liverpool.

Something else I have just found is some House of Commons questions from June 2006, stating that the callcentre used to average around 1000 calls per day, but during March 2006 the callrate was four times that, increasing to around 8000 calls on 20th March 2006. The result of this was the increase of incoming call lines, and employment of more operators.

So what the hell happened?
We went from having few callcentre staff, to having more than enough (if we go by the House of Commons report), then they move sites and REDUCE the amount of incoming lines, to 'remove frustration'.
Where do they get these people!?!
If anything, it increases frustration at not being able to get through in the first place, then once we're on hold we're on for a minimum of half an hour before getting through to someone who hasn't got a clue.

Ok, rant over.... for now, but it's just going to raise it's head more and more.

Well...

.. I'm not building my hopes up just yet.
I emailed my MP, Helen Goodman earlier today, with regards to the personal problems I've had with the SIA over the last 16 months, and seeing as I am yet to receive any form of reply from her for the email I sent to her 3 weeks ago on wednesday, I'm not going to get too hopeful just yet.

All I want is someone to turn around and say 'yeah, we've screwed up with this, sorry' but I can't see it happening to be honest.