What is an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC)?

An Alarm Receiving Centre is a control room, staffed continuously, that receives alarm signals and acts on them under agreed procedures. In the UK, an ARC handling police-response signals must be certificated to BS EN 50518 by an approved inspectorate such as the NSI or SSAIB.

The ARC is the part of the chain that does the thinking. It receives the signal, identifies which property and which zone it came from, and works through the response plan held on file for that property.

ARCs handling police response are inspected. The standard for the centre itself is BS EN 50518, which covers the building, its physical security, power resilience, staffing levels and procedures. It replaced the older British standard BS 5979, which is now withdrawn — if a provider still advertises BS 5979 certification, that is a sign their marketing has not been reviewed in years.

Because certification attaches to a specific inspected site and legal entity, it is worth asking which ARC will actually monitor your system and checking that centre on the inspectorate's own register, rather than accepting a general claim that a company is 'fully accredited'.