If your business supplies people into security or events, your clients are increasingly asking one question: can you prove the people you supply are legal, screened, licensed and fairly employed? COP 119, and now the British Standard BS 10119:2026, are how you prove it. This guide explains what they are, how they differ, where the sector is heading, why it is worth doing, and how a manager actually implements it.
Why labour provision assurance matters
Most security and events work is delivered through a supply chain of labour. A client hires a security company, which hires a sub-contractor, which supplies the officers or stewards actually on site. At each hand-off, risk creeps in: illegal working, unlicensed officers, unscreened staff, labour exploitation and modern slavery, pay and working-time breaches, and bogus self-employment. When any of that reaches a client's site, the legal, financial and reputational damage lands on the whole chain, including the buyer at the top. That is why buyers now demand independent, audited assurance.
What COP 119 is
COP 119 is the National Code of Practice for the Provision of Labour in the Security and Events Sectors. It is an industry code of practice that a labour provider can be independently audited and certified against. A certificate is evidence to buyers that the provider screens people to BS 7858, pays them through a compliant PAYE system at least at the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage, verifies and monitors SIA licences, carries out right to work checks, complies with the Working Time Regulations, and runs the business properly. It audits two dimensions: the company and management requirements, and the personnel and staff requirements.
What BS 10119:2026 is
BS 10119:2026 is the British Standard Provision of labour to the security and events sectors, Code of practice. It is published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and was developed by BSI committee GW/3 (Private Security Management and Services). It takes the subject matter COP 119 covered and gives it the status, structure and governance of a full British Standard, providing a single, consistently recognised benchmark for the sector.
The difference, in one table
| COP 119 | BS 10119:2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Industry National Code of Practice | Formal British Standard |
| Published by | Industry and certification schemes | BSI (committee GW/3) |
| Recognition | Respected sector code | National standard, wider formal recognition |
| Consistency | Could vary between schemes | One common, referenced benchmark |
| Subject | Labour provision assurance | Same, formalised, with a stronger management-system and evidence emphasis |
Manager's takeaway: if you already meet COP 119 well, you are most of the way to BS 10119. BS 10119 tightens expectations around your management system, your evidence and consistent practice, and it carries more weight with buyers because it is a British Standard.
The future: direction of travel
Now that a British Standard exists, expect it to become the reference point that buyers, tenders and frameworks name. Certification bodies are running transition programmes to move COP 119 holders onto BS 10119, and organisations may hold both during the change-over. The firms that transition early protect their place in supply chains; those that wait risk being screened out of tenders that begin to specify BS 10119.
The business case
How to implement it: the ASSURE model
Implementation is easier to drive when it has a shape. We teach a simple six-step model managers can remember: ASSURE.
- A, Assess. Gap-analyse current practice against the standard. Rate each requirement met, partly met or not met, with evidence, and prioritise legal and safety gaps first.
- S, Structure. Put the company foundations in place: legal entity and insurances, policies, client and worker contracts, a complaints route, subcontracting controls, and secure record retention.
- S, Screen and source. Get the people side right: recruitment, right to work checks before deployment, BS 7858 screening, and SIA licence verification and ongoing monitoring.
- U, Uphold employment standards. PAYE and at least minimum wage, Working Time Regulations, holiday, pensions, health and safety, welfare and anti-slavery vigilance.
- R, Records and evidence. Build the audit trail. Under a code of practice, if it is not evidenced, it is treated as not done.
- E, Evaluate and improve. Internal audit, corrective action on root causes, management review, and certification.
Two habits keep it real day to day: "no green light, no deployment", so no one goes on site until right to work, screening and any SIA licence are confirmed and evidenced; and continuous supply-chain assurance, because your certificate means little if the labour actually on site comes from an unchecked sub-supplier.
Getting certified
Certification is granted by an independent certification body, not by self declaration. The route is: choose a body that offers BS 10119, prepare your ASSURE work (ideally with a pre-assessment), pass an audit that reviews your system and samples worker files, close any non-conformities, then maintain the certificate through surveillance audits and periodic recertification. If you already hold COP 119, ask your body about their transition programme; much of your existing evidence carries across.
Train your managers
We built a certificated course for exactly this: BS 10119 for Managers: Implementing Labour Provision Assurance in the Security and Events Sectors. It covers the background, the difference, the future and the business case, then walks the whole ASSURE implementation journey through to certification, with knowledge checks, a final exam and a verifiable certificate recorded on your training matrix.