Lock-Up & Unlock Service

Lock-Up & Unlock Service — SIA-Licensed Officers, UK Coverage

Armour Security's lock-up and unlock service removes the need for staff to open or close your premises alone, particularly during the early hours of the morning and late evenings when lone-worker risk is highest. An SIA-licensed officer attends at the agreed time to open the building, unset the alarm and make sure the site is safe and ready for the working day. At closing time, the same standard is applied — the premises are checked, your agreed lock-up procedure is followed, the alarm is set, and every door is secured before the officer leaves site.

Why Businesses Use a Professional Lock-Up & Unlock Service

This service is useful for businesses where staff availability changes, keys are forgotten, holidays need covering, or you simply want to reduce the risk of employees being responsible for site security on their own. Multi-site retailers, offices with rotating managers, gyms with early-morning openings, schools needing reliable access for cleaners and contractors, and warehouses with shift-pattern handovers all benefit from removing the open and close from individual employees and handing it to an SIA-licensed officer with a documented procedure.

Supporting Your Lone-Working Obligations

Under UK law, employers are required to assess and manage lone working risks and ensure workers can obtain assistance in the event of an emergency. Using a professional security provider helps support those obligations while improving operational security — the open and close moves from an individual employee to an SIA-licensed officer with a documented procedure, an audit trail, and 24/7 backup from our control room.

Scheduled or Ad Hoc — Whichever Suits Your Operation

Services can be arranged as regular scheduled visits or booked on an ad hoc basis when needed. Scheduled cover gives you the same reliable open and close every day, with the alarm set and unset to the same standard regardless of which team is rostered. Ad hoc bookings cover the gaps — holidays, sickness, late deliveries, emergency call-outs and one-off out-of-hours access for contractors, cleaners or engineers. The combination means you have a single, trusted partner for every door-opening event at your premises.

Out-of-Hours Access for Contractors, Cleaners and Deliveries

Anyone managing a commercial site knows the operational pressure of out-of-hours access — a delivery arriving outside the working day, a cleaning crew that needs to be in before staff arrive, a contractor booked at short notice for a repair, or an emergency call-out from a tenant or alarm activation. Our SIA-licensed officers handle these attendances on your behalf, opening up, supervising as required by your procedure, and securing the premises again afterwards. This eliminates the risk of handing keys or alarm codes to third parties and removes the need to call out a member of your own staff at short notice.

Full Attendance Reporting and Audit Trail

For added peace of mind, attendance can be recorded with reports, arrival and departure times, photos where required, and any issues noted during the visit. Every open and close becomes a documented event with a clear chain of accountability — useful for insurance compliance, internal audit, and resolving any operational queries about who attended a site and when. The full record is available through the client portal, accessible from any device, so site managers and head office have visibility of every attendance without needing to chase paperwork.

UK-Wide Lock-Up & Unlock Coverage

Our SIA-licensed officers cover Southend-on-Sea and the wider South Essex commercial belt, the City of London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Coventry, Luton, Watford and Leicester, with mutual support across our keyholding and mobile patrol network for sites that fall outside core areas. Whether you operate a single premises or a national estate, we can deliver consistent open and close standards across every location, backed by the same reporting, the same SIA-licensed officers, and the same single point of contact for your operations team.