London House News

I am delighted to announce that our newest Franchise Owner has just completed his 2 week residential training programme.

Allan Fern has a long background in the construction industry at executive level and will be our Franchise Owner for the Dudley area covering the DY postcodes. Welcome aboard!

We have more training dates scheduled for June and September for further new Franchisees.

It is worth mentioning that all of our Franchise owners are CRB checked, fully insured, registered for Data Protection , hold a Consumer Credit Licence and are members of The CSA. 

You asked us........

"A topic of interest to me would be to have a clear idea of how far you can go to track down information about people bearing in mind data protection constraints".

We have to work within the 8 principles of the DPA 1998, however the real guidelines for practical purposes are twofold:

-          We can get any information on the public record - sometimes using our databases there is more than first imagined

-          We can use any information freely given by a member of the public (telephone or in the field) providing we do not hold ourselves out to be anybody other than who we truly are - this is where the skill of the right conversation/approach is helpful

Very often a linked address on a database sets us off on another path or we discover additional property owned. Neighbours sometimes give clues - away at their holiday home , on their boat etc

In the end it comes down to cost and value of the case.

We also have all the surveillance resource as you will have seen from last months e-newsletter and can give advice re best/most cost effective deployment. Following someone to another address or different place of work sometimes produces the result but if there is nothing to find we will not find it ! Also assets offshore are difficult to pin down.

There are many variables and we are always happy to discuss individual cases. 

Focus on.......Drug Screening

In association with a world leading forensic accredited laboratory, London House can provide our clients with informative lectures, advice and consultation as well as comprehensive screening and testing services.

Amongst other things, research has shown that drug screening can reduce accidents in the workplace, increase the quality of work, reduce absenteeism and sickness and increase productivity.

Full details are available via our head office or please see our website for more information.

Are your staff part of the 8.6%?

During 2009/10, 8.6% of adults in the UK had used one or more illicit drug during the last year! A startling figure and as we know the knock on effects can and do have serious implications.

A large, multinational manufacturing company had noticed from their accident book that most of the accidents in their forklift truck area happened after the lunchbreak periods of 12-2.30pm.

Unable to locate the problem themselves, London House were called in and after a period of investigation, recommended that a drug & alcohol screening exercise be undertaken to which the employer agreed. All of the drivers were tested and amazingly it was found that 24% of the team tested positive in the afternoon for cannabis. They were all enjoying more than a sandwich for lunch! They were soon looking for new jobs.