Ordinance
on the Use of Private Security Companies
by the Federal Government
(Ordinance on the Use of Private Security Companies, OUPSC)

¹ This Or­din­ance ap­plies to fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies (the con­tract­ing au­thor­it­ies) that con­tract with a private se­cur­ity com­pany (the com­pany) for the per­form­ance of pro­tec­tion tasks in Switzer­land or abroad.

² The pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 27 Septem­ber 2013² on Private Se­cur­ity Ser­vices provided Abroad re­main re­served if the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity con­tracts with a com­pany to carry out pro­tec­tion tasks in a com­plex en­vir­on­ment in terms of Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 the Or­din­ance of 24 June 2015³ on Private Se­cur­ity Ser­vices provided Abroad.

The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity may only as­sign the per­form­ance of a pro­tec­tion task to a com­pany if there is a stat­utory basis for do­ing so.

¹ A con­tract­ing au­thor­ity that con­tracts with a com­pany for the per­form­ance of pro­tec­tion tasks in Switzer­land shall con­sult the head of se­cur­ity of its de­part­ment.

² A con­tract­ing au­thor­ity that con­tracts with a com­pany for the per­form­ance of pro­tec­tion tasks abroad shall con­sult the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs (FD­FA) and the Fed­er­al De­part­ment for De­fence, Civil Pro­tec­tion and Sport.

¹ Pri­or to con­tract­ing with a com­pany, the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall as­cer­tain that the com­pany in ques­tion meets the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

it is able to provide the re­quired guar­an­tees con­cern­ing the re­cruit­ment, train­ing, and over­sight of its per­son­nel;

b.

its good repu­ta­tion and ir­re­proach­able con­duct in busi­ness are at­tested to in par­tic­u­lar by:

1.

ad­her­ence to a code of con­duct,

2.

ex­per­i­ence in the field,

3.

ref­er­ences, or

4.

mem­ber­ship of a pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­ation;

c.

it is solvent;

d.

it has an ad­equate in­tern­al con­trol sys­tem which en­sures that its per­son­nel com­ply with es­tab­lished stand­ards of con­duct and that dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures are taken where mis­con­duct oc­curs;

e.

it is au­thor­ised un­der the ap­plic­able law to carry out activ­it­ies in the do­main of private se­cur­ity;

f.

it has li­ab­il­ity in­sur­ance cov­er­age in an amount com­men­sur­ate with the risk in­curred.

² The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity may, by way of ex­cep­tion, con­tract with a com­pany to provide se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad where that com­pany does not pos­sess li­ab­il­ity in­sur­ance cov­er­age if:

a.

pur­chas­ing such in­sur­ance would en­gender dis­pro­por­tion­ate costs to the com­pany; and

b.

the li­ab­il­ity risk and the amount of any com­pens­at­ory dam­ages to be borne by the Con­fed­er­a­tion may be as­sessed as low.

³ Para­graph 1 does not ap­ply if the su­per­vi­sion or guard­ing of mil­it­ary in­stall­a­tions is car­ried out by per­sons who are con­trac­tu­ally as­signed to do so un­der Art­icle 6 para­graph 2 let­ter b of the Mil­it­ary In­stall­a­tions Pro­tec­tion Or­din­ance of 2 May 1990⁴.

¹ The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall as­cer­tain that the se­cur­ity per­son­nel of the com­pany have re­ceived ad­equate train­ing that is com­men­sur­ate with the pro­tec­tion task as­signed to them and that in­cludes the fol­low­ing as­pects in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

re­spect for fun­da­ment­al rights, per­son­al pri­vacy rights, and pro­ced­ur­al law;

b.

the use of phys­ic­al force and weapons when act­ing in self-de­fence or in situ­ations of ne­ces­sity;

c.

deal­ing with per­sons of­fer­ing res­ist­ance or pre­pared to re­sort to vi­ol­ence;

d.

provid­ing first aid;

e.

as­sess­ing health risks en­tailed in the use of force;

f.

com­bat­ing cor­rup­tion.

² If the pro­tec­tion task is car­ried out abroad, the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall also as­cer­tain that the per­son­nel have re­ceived ap­pro­pri­ate in­struc­tion in the ap­plic­able in­ter­na­tion­al and na­tion­al law.

³ The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity may, by way of ex­cep­tion, con­tract with a com­pany to provide se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad where that com­pany does not fully meet the re­quire­ments set out in para­graphs 1 and 2, on con­di­tion that there is no oth­er com­pany that meets those re­quire­ments at the place at which the ser­vice is to be provided and that the pro­tec­tion task can­not oth­er­wise be ac­com­plished.

⁴ The max­im­um dur­a­tion for which a con­tract may be con­cluded un­der para­graph 3 is six months. The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall take meas­ures to en­sure that the com­pany ful­fils the re­quire­ments set out in para­graphs 1 and 2 with­in as short a time as pos­sible. Such meas­ures shall be stip­u­lated in the con­tract.

The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall make cer­tain that per­son­nel are iden­ti­fi­able when act­ing in the ex­er­cise of their func­tion.

¹ The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall spe­cify in the con­tract wheth­er the per­son­nel must be armed for the pur­poses of self-de­fence or for situ­ations of ne­ces­sity.

² It shall en­sure that the per­son­nel have the re­quired per­mits.

³ The rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions on self-de­fence and situ­ations of ne­ces­sity are re­served.

1 All per­son­nel shall, as a gen­er­al rule, be un­armed.

2 Where the situ­ation abroad re­quires that any per­son­nel, by way of ex­cep­tion, carry a weapon so as to be able to re­act in self-de­fence or in a situ­ation of ne­ces­sity, the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall spe­cify this in the con­tract.

³ The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall as­cer­tain that the per­son­nel are in pos­ses­sion of the per­mits re­quired un­der the ap­plic­able law.

4 The weapons le­gis­la­tion of the place at which the pro­tec­tion task is to be per­formed ap­plies.

¹ The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity may provide in the con­tract that the per­son­nel may use force or oth­er po­lice meas­ures as defined in the Use of Force Act of 20 March 2008⁵ (UFA) if there is a stat­utory basis for do­ing so.

² It shall en­sure that the per­son­nel have re­ceived the re­quired train­ing.

³ The use of force and oth­er po­lice meas­ures is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the UFA.

¹ Where it is pos­sible to ac­com­plish a pro­tec­tion task only through the use of force or oth­er po­lice meas­ures as defined in the UFA⁶, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may grant per­mis­sion to do so even in situ­ations oth­er than those of self-de­fence or of ne­ces­sity.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall make cer­tain that the per­son­nel have re­ceived the ap­pro­pri­ate train­ing.

3 The law at the place of de­ploy­ment ap­plies.

¹ The con­tract with the com­pany shall re­quire the com­pany in par­tic­u­lar to:

a.

provide in­form­a­tion on pro­gress with the per­form­ance of the con­tract if the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity so re­quests;

b.

dis­close the iden­tity of the per­son­nel de­ployed to the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity;

c.

pre­pare a re­port for sub­mis­sion to the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity;

d.

im­me­di­ately re­place any per­son­nel who do not have the re­quired skills or who ad­versely af­fect the per­form­ance of the con­tract;

e.

im­me­di­ately re­port to the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity any cir­cum­stances that could ad­versely af­fect the per­form­ance of the con­tract;

f.

im­me­di­ately re­port to the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity any in­cid­ents in which per­son­nel have used force or po­lice meas­ures or have ac­ted in self-de­fence or in a situ­ation of ne­ces­sity;

g.

im­me­di­ately re­port to the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity if the re­quire­ments for the com­pany or for train­ing are no longer be­ing met;

h.

ob­tain the pri­or writ­ten con­sent of the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity be­fore the con­trac­tu­al del­eg­a­tion of pro­tec­tion tasks.

² The con­tract shall also con­tain:

a.

the de­tails re­quired by Art­icles 7–10 of this Or­din­ance;

b.

pro­vi­sion for con­trac­tu­al pen­al­ties in the event of non-ful­fil­ment.

¹ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice shall is­sue a mod­el con­tract for the con­tracts that are to ap­ply in Switzer­land. The mod­el con­tract shall be made ac­cess­ible on­line.

² The FD­FA shall is­sue a mod­el con­tract in terms of Art­icle 15 of the Or­din­ance of 24 June 2015⁷ on Private Se­cur­ity Ser­vices provided Abroad for the con­tracts that are to ap­ply abroad.

¹ The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall provide the head of se­cur­ity of its de­part­ment with a copy of the con­tract con­cluded with the com­pany and in­form the head of se­cur­ity of any prob­lems re­lated to the per­form­ance of the con­tract in Switzer­land.

² It shall provide the FD­FA and the head of se­cur­ity of its de­part­ment with a copy of the con­tract con­cluded with the com­pany and in­form the FD­FA and the head of se­cur­ity of its de­part­ment of any prob­lems re­lated to the per­form­ance of the con­tract abroad.

¹ The Or­din­ance of 31. Oc­to­ber 2007⁹ on the Use of Private Se­cur­ity Com­pan­ies is re­pealed.

² ...¹⁰

The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall by 1 Septem­ber 2018 amend ex­ist­ing con­tracts that do not meet the re­quire­ments of this Or­din­ance.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Septem­ber 2015.