[Praepositus]

The SIB Employment Badge seems to have first appeared during the Bosnia Campaign (Op PALATINE) in 1998/99. The need for an identifier for SIB personnel arose from the confusion at crime scenes where SIB personnel could not be easily differentiated from General Police Duties (GPD) personnel. But as with most things it then took a number of attempts to get the badge authorised for wear – not helped by the SIB’s failure to convince its own Chain of Command of the requirement & an apparent unwillingness to ‘press to test’ in terms of the staffing action required.

By Op TELIC 1, the SIB & its sponsor HQ Provost Marshal (Army) (HQPM(A)), had attempted to get the lozenge shaped employment badge authorised for wear, but each attempt failed to convince the Adjutant General's Corps (AGC) Dress Committee, without whose endorsement an application could not be submitted to the Army Dress Committee. In the summer of 2004, another attempt was made by HQ PM(A) & this time it was based on current operational experience from Iraq and on the clear operational need to differentiate SIB personnnel from GPD personnel at scenes of crime and other critical incidents, where with body-armour et al everyone looks the same and only the MP 'TRF' (sic) to identify Service Police personnel. This time, with the clear support of the then AGC Regimental Colonel (Col Brown ADC) the application was approved in 2004, & the wearing of the SIB lozenge was incorporated into AGC Dress Regs (vide para 02.008: Employment Badges. The only employment badges authorised for wear are RMP and SIB).

However, the Army Dress Committee, while recognising the requirement, would not authorise the badge to be provided at public expense & this was due to: the small numbers required and the resultant unit costs; the fact that the MP ‘appointment’ employment is still worn as an armlet (and also as a TRF so-called on Combat 95 clothing) meant that with a SIB Employment Badge as well, a relatively small part of the Army would have lots of badges at not an insignificant cost to the public purse. HQ PM(A) had a clear choice – continue to see the MP appointments paid for at public expense or the SIB lozenge, or see the armlet removed from use.
An initial issue was paid for from SIB Unit Non-Public PRI Funds). Robin Hodges covers the history of the SIB lozenge in his book.