The launch of the new Security Industry Authority (SIA) heralds a clampdown on door staff employed at British bars and nightclubs.

It could also lead to job losses across the whole of the private security.

The new body, launched on 1 April by Home Office minister Lord Falconer, is an independent organisation answerable to the Home Office, with legal responsibility for licensing security industry operatives and for raising standards of training and professionalism.

In the future, staff will need to pass a criminal background check. Anyone convicted of a serious offence in the previous five years will be refused a licence and it will be a criminal offence to work in the industry without one.

They should also have effective communication skills in the English language and reach specified levels of training.

Door supervisors on licenced premises and wheel clampers and vehicle removers operating on private ground will be the first people affected, in a pilot scheme in early 2004 - with rollout licensing for the sector commencing later in the year.

Licencing of security guards - including in-transit guards, bodyguards and dog handlers - and key holders will start in 2005 and of private investigators and security consultants from 2006.

The SIA said that its aim is to create an authority that is internationally recognised as a major contributor to the quality and effectiveness off the private security industry, thus helping to reduce crime, disorder and the fear of crime.

The SIA has estimated that between 30 and 40 per cent of door supervisors and about 20 per cent of those employed elsewhere in the private security industry would not qualify for a licence.

Steve Dennis, director of nightclub operator, Luminar, said: 'Luminar has been calling for a unified regulatory security structure for some time so we welcome the introduction of SIA and its wish to work with operators to introduce the scheme.'

He added that Luminar already has a designated list of approved suppliers and demands high standards of operatives and assurances that they are fit and proper and suitably trained. Details: www.the-sia.org.uk