Is there a fixed time period for the SSC licence?
No. The updated licences issued by the Skills Minister of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are open ended. The new licence will replace the previous licence. When SSCs were first licensed the initial offer letters to the Chairs of SSCs stated that the intention was to licence SSCs for five years, although the licences themselves did not actually specify an end date. As with the original licences, the updated licences do not set an end date. In order to maintain the licence an SSC has to continue to demonstrate that they meet the required licensing standards, as assessed on an ongoing basis through the new risk-based inspection programme.
