Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Performance of the UK Security Vetting service

Status: Closed Opened: 19 Jan 2023 Closed: 21 Jul 2023 3 recommendations 21 conclusions 1 report

UK Security Vetting (UKSV) was established in January 2017 and since April 2020 has been part of the Cabinet Office’s Government Security Group. Prior to its move to the Cabinet Office it was part of the Ministry of Defence and UKSV is still managing legacy elements of the transition. Following publication by the National Audit …

Reports

1 report

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Fifty-Third Report - The performance of UK Security Vetting	HC 994	12 May 2023	24	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

3 items

20 Conclusion Fifty-Third Report - The performance of… Deferred

UKSV's £40 million transformation programme business cases have faced repeated rejection by COAB.

UKSV has been trying, largely unsuccessfully, to modernise the vetting system since it launched a Vetting Reform programme in 2019.50 UKSV’s Chief Executive said, “if we had a magic wand and we could build a new system tomorrow, we absolutely would”.51 Whenever it has taken full business cases for its …

Government response. The Cabinet Office has contracted external support for a 10-week enhanced discovery to review delivery models for Vetting Transformation, with outputs forming an Outline Business Case for consideration in October 2023.

HM Treasury

22 Conclusion Fifty-Third Report - The performance of… Deferred

Previous IT modernisation efforts led to significant budget overruns and project failures for UKSV.

As part of the Vetting Reform programme, the Cabinet Office planned to replace UKSV’s legacy IT system, the National Security Vetting System, through the Future Vetting System programme, by February 2020 at a cost of £19 million. Failures in project management meant that the programme ran £9 million over budget …

Government response. The Cabinet Office has commissioned a 10-week enhanced discovery phase with external support to review delivery models for Vetting Transformation, which will inform an Outline Business Case to be considered in October 2023.

HM Treasury

23 Conclusion Fifty-Third Report - The performance of… Deferred

Cabinet Office's cautious approach delays Vetting Transformation programme following past IT modernisation failures.

The Cabinet Office told us that following its bad experience with its first attempt to modernise IT, it was now adopting a more cautious approach to transformation, and that it rejected the business plan for the Vetting Transformation programme on a few occasions because it was “not totally happy with …

Government response. The Cabinet Office has contracted external support for a 10-week discovery phase to review and advise on Vetting Transformation delivery models, with outputs forming an Outline Business Case for consideration in October 2023.

HM Treasury

Correspondence

1 letter

Date	Direction	Title
14 Mar 2023	—	Correspondence from Vincent Devine, Director General & Government Chief Securit…