The Datum Report

Occupation 3319 · Associate professional occupations

Protective service associate professionals n.e.c.

Half of full-time protective service associate professionals n.e.c. in the UK earn more than £44,007 a year, and half earn less.

Job holders in this unit group inspect goods to ensure compliance with regulations concerning payment of duty, establish that persons entering and leaving the UK have necessary authorisation for crossing national borders, monitor maritime conditions, undertake search and rescue operations, plan and coordinate services of private detective agencies and security measures for individuals, establishments or organisations, investigates activities such as fraud and other crimes, and perform other security and protective service occupations not elsewhere classified in minor group 331: Protective service occupations.

How people enter it

These posts have varying entry requirements. Some posts require no academic qualifications whereas others require GCSEs/S grades and/or relevant practical experience. Entry to some occupations is followed by periods of assessed probationary training and professional examinations.

What the work involves

• examines, weighs and counts goods imported by ship or aircraft, ensures that the declared value of goods is satisfactory, and that duties and taxes have been paid
• examines passports, visas, work permits and other immigration documents, and allows or refuses entry into the UK
• maintains revenue control at breweries, tobacco factories and other premises where dutiable goods are manufactured, processed or stored
• visits racecourses, greyhound stadiums and betting shops to ensure compliance with legal requirements
• broadcasts information on weather and maritime conditions, monitors shipping and provides instruction to navigators
• receives distress messages, alerts other appropriate rescue services and participates in search and rescue operations
• photographs, fingerprints and undertakes other forms of forensic examination at the scene of a crime
• analyses security requirements, advises clients, and develops, monitors and improves security measures
• supervises and assigns duties to security and detection staff
• investigates crimes, including fraud, trading practices and the private affairs of individuals

Also called

Crime scene investigator · Customs officer · Immigration officer · Investigation officer (police service) · Fingerprint expert · Fraud analyst · Operations manager (security services) · Private investigator · Security manager

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for protective service associate professionals n.e.c., full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 6 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Fire service officers (watch manager and below) · Non-commissioned officers and other ranks · Police officers (sergeant and below) · Prison service officers (below principal officer)