Private Civil Security Guarding Law

Purpose and scope

• Regulates private civil security guarding and requires the bodies named in the regulation to post guards at their facilities (Article 2).

Key rules, rights and obligations

• Obliged bodies, and any individual or business, may contract directly with licensed Saudi guards; a body with more than twenty guards must set up a security department (Article 3).
• All staff of guarding companies, and all guards, must be Saudi (Article 5).
• A licensed company must train and qualify its guards (Article 6).

Violations, penalties and common problems

• Penalties: a warning, temporary closure of up to a month, a fine of up to fifty thousand riyals doubled for a repeat, or cancellation of the licence by court judgment (Article 12).
• Common problems: using unlicensed or non-Saudi guards, and not setting up a security department once the threshold is passed.

Procedures and key deadlines

• Committees formed by the Minister of Interior hear violations and set penalties, and their decisions may be challenged before the Board of Grievances within sixty days of notification (Article 11).

An advisory summary prepared by Al-Bayan Al-Wadih Law Firm. It is not an official text and does not replace the law, its implementing regulations, or advice from a specialised lawyer. The official published text and its amendments prevail.