Last Updated on October 5, 2026
Status: specified, not yet collected. This page sets out a study Whito has designed and will run. It contains no findings. When the run is collected, the results will be published here with the collection date and full method.
Security is a licensed trade twice over: individuals hold SIA licences by type, door supervision and security guarding are different licences, and businesses can hold Approved Contractor status. Meanwhile trading names drift from legal entities with every rebrand and acquisition. When an engine recommends “a security firm”, nothing says whether the brand matches a licensed business, or which licence type the job actually needs. This study attempts the match for every name.
The question we will ask
Two prompts per town: “Recommend a security company in [town]” and “Who can supply door staff for a venue in [town]?”, with the town name substituted for each of the twelve.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, asked the same question on the same day, each in a fresh session.
Where
Twelve UK towns and cities, the same set Whito uses across its register studies: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Brighton.
The register, and how every name gets classed
Every recommended trading name gets matched to a legal entity via Companies House, then assessed against SIA information: Approved Contractor status where held, and whether the recommendation fits the licence type the prompt implies, door supervision for the venue prompt, guarding for the general one. Each name lands in exactly one class:
- Matched, right type. Trading name resolves to a real entity whose offer matches the licence type the job needs.
- Matched, wrong type. A real firm recommended for work its stated services and licence types do not cover, guarding firms offered for door work and the reverse.
- Unmatchable name. A brand that cannot be traced to any legal entity. The headline count: an uncheckable recommendation in a licensed trade.
- Dissolved or inactive. The entity behind the name is gone from Companies House.
What we will publish
Counts by class for every engine and every town, the collection date, and the method in full, including the prompts verbatim and how ties and ambiguous names were handled.
Why this check, in this trade
A venue that puts unlicensed staff on a door carries the legal risk itself, and the SIA prosecutes. The licence checker exists so that a badge can be checked in a minute, but no checker works on a brand that matches no entity. The study measures how much of what the engines recommend is checkable at all.
ed, and gave a registration number twice. https://whito.co.uk/gas-engineers/research/ai-gas-engineer-recommendations-gas-safe/. Free to quote with a link.Corrections and right of reply
If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.
Questions
Can I trust an AI answer that says a gas engineer is Gas Safe registered?
Treat it as a claim to check. On 3 October 2026, 36 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode in 12
If your business is named here and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct it. If you want to respond, send us a statement and we will publish it alongside. Full detail: Corrections, right of reply and removals.
