One of the key responsibilities for racing’s regulator is to protect the integrity of the sport on and off the racecourse. Billions of pounds are bet each year on British racing, and for the sport to flourish and for racegoers and punters to be attracted to the sport, racing has to be clean and fair. The Disciplinary section outlines what happens on course with the policing of racing by the Stewards, but this section outlines the work of the Security Department in policing the integrity of the sport away from the racecourse.

The activities of the Security Department are wide-ranging and include investigations, intelligence gathering and surveillance, inspections of training establishments, monitoring betting patterns and the provision of security staff for racecourse stables and the weighing rooms of the 59 racecourses around the country.

The Security Department undertakes investigations both of its own accord (e.g. using information or intelligence passed to it), or on behalf of the Licensing and Disciplinary Department. Examples of breaches of the Rules of racing that require an investigation are as follows:

• owner/trainer laying own horse to lose on betting exchanges
• jockey passing information for reward
• licensee associating with an excluded person with regards horseracing
• positive dope sample
• training other people’s horses under permit
• bringing racing into disrepute
• improper conduct
• injecting horses in racecourse stables
• neglect of horses
• fraud / corruption in racing

In recent years, the following measures have beeb introduced to combat the threat of corruption in horseracing:

• upgraded its intelligence personnel by recruiting highly experienced intelligence investigators from the police
• built up good working relationships with the Police, National Criminal Intelligence Service, Customs & Revenue, National Crime Squad etc
• introduced memoranda of understanding with the betting exchanges and the Association of British Bookmakers to share information and gain access to the audit trails of bets
• launched a racing partnership with Crimestoppers
• introduced enhanced digital CCTV coverage for racecourse stables

These integrity measures and the British Horseracing Authority's stance on betting exchanges is expanded upon on the Fighting Corruption page.