2.1 Statute and Common Law Use of Force

2.1 Statute and Common Law Use of Force

Quick Answer: In England and Wales you may use only such force as is reasonable in the circumstances to prevent crime, effect or assist a lawful arrest (Criminal Law Act 1967 s.3), or defend yourself, others, or property under common law. SIA licence holders have the same powers as any private citizen — nothing more.

Physical intervention skills are taught for a reason, but the law decides when you may use them. Every use of force by a door supervisor, security officer, or close protection operative must rest on a recognised legal authority. Without that authority, the same act can be criminal assault or civil trespass to the person. This section sets out the statutes and common-law rules you need for the SIA Level 2 Physical Intervention theory paper and for safe practice on site.

Why legal authority matters on every intervention

Security work often involves refusing entry, asking people to leave, managing fights, and protecting staff or customers. Those tasks can tip into physical contact. The exam and your employer both expect you to know:

• What authorises force — statute and common law, not company policy alone
• Who has the power — any person (including you), not a special “security power”
• How much force — only force that is reasonable in the circumstances (developed fully in section 2.2)
• Where you are working — the law of England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland applies to that venue

Company instructions, venue house rules, and training manuals guide good practice. They do not create extra legal powers. If force is not authorised by law, a policy note cannot make it lawful.

Criminal Law Act 1967 section 3 (England and Wales)

The main statutory provision tested for England and Wales is section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967. In plain terms it provides that:

A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large.

Key points for security operatives:

Prevention of crime

Section 3 covers force used to prevent crime. Typical security scenarios include:

• Stopping an assault on a customer or colleague
• Intervening to break up a fight where offences are being committed
• Preventing criminal damage to property (where force is otherwise reasonable)
• Stopping theft in progress in a retail or event setting

You are not a free-floating crime-fighter. The force must still be reasonable in the circumstances, and non-physical options should be used where they are reasonably available. Section 3 is an authority for force — not a duty to use force in every situation.

Effecting or assisting a lawful arrest

Section 3 also covers force used to effect or assist a lawful arrest. Private citizens (including security staff) have limited powers of arrest under other legislation, most notably the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) provisions on citizen’s arrest for indictable offences in specified circumstances. For the physical intervention exam you need the principle, not a full PACE course:

• Force under s.3 only assists an arrest that is itself lawful
• If the arrest is not lawful, force used to make it cannot be justified under the “lawful arrest” limb of s.3
• In practice, many venue roles focus on prevention, ejection under civil rights of the landowner, and calling the police rather than performing arrests

If your role or employer expects citizen’s arrest in some situations, you must also know the arrest criteria taught in your wider licence-linked training. Physical intervention training does not expand arrest powers.

Common law: self-defence, defence of others, defence of property

Alongside statute, common law continues to authorise reasonable force in classic defensive situations.

Self-defence

You may use reasonable force to defend yourself against an actual or imminent unlawful attack. The law does not require you to wait to be hit if a genuine threat is imminent, but it does require the response to stay within what is reasonable for the threat as you honestly believed it to be.

Defence of others

The same principles apply when you protect a colleague, customer, or member of the public. Door supervisors regularly rely on defence of others when separating fighters or shielding staff behind the bar.

Defence of property

Common law (and related statutory themes) also address force used to protect property. Defence of property is generally more limited than defence of the person. Using significant force solely to protect property — especially when people are not at risk — is harder to justify as reasonable. Prefer containment, locking down stock, recording evidence, and police attendance over aggressive physical recovery of goods where people would be endangered.

How statute and common law work together

In many real incidents several authorities overlap. Stopping an assault can be:

• Prevention of crime under CLA 1967 s.3
• Self-defence or defence of others under common law

You do not need to pick a single legal label mid-incident. You do need to ensure that whatever you do remains necessary and reasonable. Over-force is not saved by correctly naming a statute afterwards.

Private security has no special powers

This is a core exam message and a professional one:

• An SIA licence is permission to work in a regulated role subject to training and conduct rules
• It is not a badge of police-style powers
• You have no general power to stop and search, no general power of entry, and no special immunity for force
• Your powers are essentially those of a private citizen, plus whatever civil rights the venue owner gives you as their agent (for example asking people to leave private premises)

Being “on the door” does not let you use force that a careful private citizen could not justify. If anything, the public and courts may scrutinise trained security staff more closely because you are expected to know better.

Civil rights of the landowner and ejection

Much door work is about private premises. The owner (or their agent — often you) may refuse entry and require people to leave. Someone who refuses to leave after a clear request may become a trespasser. Reasonable force may be used to eject a trespasser in some circumstances, but:

• Warning and opportunity to leave peacefully should normally come first where practicable
• Force must remain reasonable — dragging, striking, or prolonged restraint for a simple refusal to leave is rarely justified
• Criminal law (s.3 / self-defence) still governs any force that amounts to prevention of crime or defence of persons

Ejection is not a free pass for “manhandling” anyone who argues with staff.

Breach of the peace (door and venue context)

Breach of the peace is a common-law concept heavily relevant to licensed premises and events. Broadly, a breach of the peace involves harm actually done or likely to be done to a person, or in their presence to their property, or a person being in fear of such harm through assault, affray, riot, or other disturbance.

For door supervisors:

• Preventing a breach of the peace can justify intervention and, where appropriate, reasonable restraint pending police arrival
• Your aim is often to restore order and protect people, not to punish
• Once the threat has passed, continued force is hard to justify
• Hand over to the police promptly when they attend; explain what you saw and what force you used

Breach of the peace is not a free-standing excuse for aggressive “pre-emptive” assaults on people who are merely loud or rude without a genuine risk of harm.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The SIA regulates the private security industry across the United Kingdom, but criminal law is not identical in every nation:

Exam and workplace rule: you work under the law of the jurisdiction where the incident occurs. Do not assume an England-and-Wales statute title applies word-for-word everywhere. The professional standard is the same: only reasonable force, only when necessary, and never as punishment.

When force is — and is not — authorised (exam scenarios)

Use this table to sort typical theory-paper scenarios:

Linking law to physical intervention training

Your practical techniques are taught as non-pain compliance, low-level holds, and defensive skills because the legal framework demands the least harmful effective option. Knowing CLA 1967 s.3 and common law is not academic decoration — it is the reason interventions must be last resort, necessary, and reasonable. Section 2.2 develops necessity, proportionality, and the “circumstances as you believed them to be” test in detail.

Key points to lock in before the quiz

1. CLA 1967 s.3 — reasonable force to prevent crime or effect/assist lawful arrest (England and Wales).
2. Common law — self-defence, defence of others, defence of property.
3. No special SIA powers beyond the private citizen.
4. Jurisdiction matters — Scotland and Northern Ireland have parallel but separate frameworks.
5. Breach of the peace is central to managing disorder at venues, not to punishing rudeness.
6. Policy ≠ law — employer rules cannot authorise unlawful force.