Not all locksmiths are the same and locksmiths here in the UK range from the highly skilled, professionals to the have a go handyman, a range you don't find in a lot of other industries and this is simply down to the lack of regulation.

The UK locksmith industry is completely unregulated which does shock a lot of people especially when you consider that you are letting a stranger into your home or business to provide security services, a stranger who doesn't require any training, qualifications or police checks and there have been cases where a rogue locksmith has changed a lock and kept a key for themselves for later use.

Making sure that you are in fact calling on the services of a professional and not an amateur can be difficult at times especially when most people will simply search Google and call a company that appears near the top of the search results or a company that appears in what's known as the map 3-pack but by taking an extra minute or 2 to choose who you'll call out can help you avoid the rogues and the amateurs and here's how.

 

Firstly, check out their qualifications

Even in an unregulated industry you can get official qualifications and for the locksmith industry the official government approved training courses are the Ofqual courses, Ofqual are the government office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England and you can find more information on the gov.uk website.

There are in fact two Ofqual diplomas for the locksmith industry, the Level 3 Diploma in Commercial Locksmiths & Property Security and the Level 3 Diploma in Automotive Locksmiths & Vehicle Security.  Both of these courses are college/university run vocational courses that take many months to complete and teach the student a full range of locksmith skills such as identifying locks, learning British Standards for locks and learning a full range of non destructive entry methods.

A locksmith who is Ofqual qualified usually states this fact on their website and if they do you know that they are professionally trained and qualified. Now because the industry is unregulated you can still find 3 and 5 day crash courses being pushed online by private companies.

Of course compared to a course that takes many months to complete and costs 5 times as much you are not going to learn a great deal and training will usually consist of learning a few lock types and general locksmith terms so you sound like you know what you are doing and learning where to drill certain locks to gain access which any professional locksmith will tell you, does not make you a locksmith.

These private companies target amateurs looking for cheap courses who are all about getting the odd emergency entry job. Emergency entry work is when you are locked out due to a faulty lock or because you have lost your keys and you call a 24 Hour Locksmith to gain entry.

Amateurs and rogues will target this type of customer, turn up, immediately start drilling away and leave you with a hefty billed for their call out, drilling and the overpriced new locked that they had to install because they didn't have the skill to pick it.

 

Secondly, check whether they offer Non Destructive Entry

Because the official Ofqual vocational courses only came out in 2019 there are 100's of genuine, professional locksmiths trading in the UK who do not have this qualification yet are competent, professional and fully qualified locksmiths.

These locksmiths will generally make sure to use the term Non Destructive Entry on their websites and marketing posts to distance themselves from the rogues and amateurs, remember earlier when when mentioned that the crash courses only have time to learn their students drilling techniques and not non destructive entry?

Non Destructive Entry requires skill, skill that the amateurs simple don't have, or want, but a time served, professional locksmith does have this skill-set and if you have merely lost a set of keys and have a spare set in your house then you don't need your lock drilling out and replacing, you simply need it picking to get you inside.

 

In Summary

Choosing the correct tradesman or company for any job or service whether it's the locksmith industry or other industry such as construction, landscaping, plastering etc can be hit and miss because there are professionals and amateurs in most industries.

However, with these other industries people generally have more time to research companies, look at feedback and get quotes but when you're stood outside your home at 2am with no keys you don't have this luxury, so we hope this little article helps some people avoid the rogues and amateurs of the locksmith industry.

Resourses

Thanks to the following websites and resourses for helping us put together this article.

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