Security operative in GB
What this register publishes today, what is missing, and the smallest change that would move it up.
What was found
A free public register, open 24 hours and with no login, which the regulator itself says is the definitive check rather than the card in somebody’s hand. Two problems. To search without the sixteen-digit licence number you must supply the person’s surname together with personal details such as date of birth, so checking a credential requires holding information about the person that a checker has no business needing. And the open data entry for this register was last updated in 2016.
What it publishes
| Check | Answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A public page per licence | Yes | Gives a reader something to look at and a checker something to archive and attest against. |
| A bulk export | No | Lets a consumer hold the whole list instead of fetching one licence at a time, and lets anyone hash it. |
| Machine readable | No | A CSV or JSON rather than a page built for a browser. Decides whether checking can be automated at all. |
| Signed | No | Makes the file impossible to forge or mirror convincingly. Nothing reaches grade A without it. |
The next step
Give every licence a stable address
The register exists but lives behind a search form, so there is nothing to link to, nothing to archive and nothing to attest against. A permanent address per licence costs little and moves this row to grade C on its own.
A grade describes a register, not the authority behind it and not the quality of its supervision. An authority can run an excellent register and still sit at grade D because it is a search form.
If this row is wrong, it gets corrected with the correction published beside it. The index is useful only if it can be argued with. Tell the lab.