Lock and Unlock Services

Related guides

• Opening and lock-up procedure for businesses

Your most vulnerable times are early morning openings, late-night lock-ups and quiet handover periods, when one member of staff is often on site alone.

Moving your opening and closing routines to SPS removes reliance on internal staff and ensures your site is secured consistently, safely and with full accountability.

What happens on each visit

The same checks every time, whether we are opening up or locking up.

A safer, more professional alternative to staff lock-up

Asking staff to open or lock up a commercial premises alone — particularly early in the morning or late at night — creates significant lone worker risk and personal security exposure. If an intruder is on site, or if a problem is discovered during the routine, a member of staff attending alone is in a vulnerable position. By transferring your lock and unlock routine to SPS Security, you eliminate that risk entirely and ensure every visit is carried out by a trained security professional.

Our officers will open your premises at an agreed time each morning, carry out a basic security check, and lock up securely at close of business. Every visit is documented and any issues found during the lock or unlock — from unsecured access points to signs of damage — are reported immediately and escalated through our 24/7 control room.

Full audit trail and compliance documentation

Full audit records are maintained for every visit, providing a clear and verifiable trail of who attended, when they attended, what was checked and what was found. This level of documentation is increasingly important for businesses with insurance or compliance requirements, particularly in sectors such as education, retail and healthcare where accountability for site security is closely scrutinised.

Our lock and unlock service is fully integrated with our keyholding and alarm response service, creating a seamless out-of-hours security arrangement. If an alarm is triggered after lock-up, the same keyholder relationship means our officers can respond immediately without delay.

Consistent, reliable cover seven days a week

SPS Security provides lock and unlock cover seven days a week, 365 days a year, across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire including Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Doncaster, Grimsby, York and surrounding areas. We handle all holiday and absence cover internally, so your opening and closing routine is never dependent on a single individual. All officers are SIA-licensed, vetted and trained to the same professional standard.

Lock and unlock duties are often specified as part of wider reactive security works contracts, alongside keyholding and alarm response. SPS can deliver these as a standalone arrangement or as part of a joined-up out-of-hours security model.

Opening up: what our officer does

The officer arrives at the agreed time and checks the outside of the building before going in, looking for forced entry, damage or anything unusual. They unlock, unset the intruder alarm, walk through the agreed internal areas, and switch on lights or open shutters, gates and barriers where that is part of your routine. The opening is logged with the time, so you know the site was open and checked before your team arrives.

Locking up: securing the site at close of business

At lock-up the officer checks that the building is empty, closes windows and internal doors as agreed, locks external doors, shutters, gates and car park barriers, and sets the alarm. If the alarm will not set, a door will not lock or someone is still on site, the officer follows your escalation steps rather than leaving the site insecure. Every lock-up is recorded, giving you evidence for insurers and auditors.

Lock and unlock cover for schools, offices, retail and industrial sites

Schools and academies use the service for early openings, evening lettings and holiday periods when site staff are away. Offices and business parks use it to remove key-person dependency and lone working. Retail parks and units use it for early deliveries and late closing, and industrial and warehouse sites for perimeter checks, gates and shutters. Community buildings and places of worship use it where volunteers would otherwise lock up alone at night.

Short-term and one-off lock-up cover

Not every site needs a daily routine. Ask us about short-term cover while a keyholder is on holiday or off sick, during a temporary closure, or for one-off events where the building needs opening and securing outside normal hours.

Getting started

We agree your opening and closing times, the alarm and locking routine, which areas to check and who to contact if something is wrong. Keys and alarm codes are handed over, logged and held securely, and the routine is written into site instructions so every officer follows the same steps. Lock and unlock cover can then start on the agreed date, with reporting from the first visit.

What the service includes

• Scheduled daily opening and closing visits
• SIA-licensed officers for every visit
• Basic security check included on each attendance
• Full audit trail and visit records
• Immediate incident escalation via 24/7 control room
• Integration with keyholding and alarm response
• Available 7 days a week across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Take the risk out of opening and locking up your premises. Request a no-obligation quote from SPS Security today.

Mobile Security Coverage across Hull, Grimsby and Scunthorpe

SPS delivers mobile patrols 365 days a year across our core Humber service areas. Coverage is organised around Hull and East Yorkshire, Grimsby and North East Lincolnshire, and Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire, with wider managed coverage available where required.

Wider managed coverage where required

SPS directly delivers mobile patrols, keyholding and alarm response across our core Hull and East Yorkshire and Grimsby and North East Lincolnshire operating areas, including Scunthorpe. Coverage for Doncaster and locations further afield is confirmed around the site requirement and delivery model.

Where clients have sites beyond our direct mobile patrol footprint, SPS can support wider coverage through selected approved partner providers. SPS remains responsible for managing the service model, reporting expectations, escalation process and client relationship, helping multi-site clients maintain a consistent standard even where local response is delivered through an approved partner.

Combine services where the site needs more than one layer of support

These services sit within our Mobile Security operation and are often delivered together so clients can combine patrols, response, access support and scheduled property checks through one locally managed model.

Lock and unlock FAQs

Practical questions clients usually ask before putting a scheduled opening and closing routine in place.