Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Accepted
UK Security Vetting's current staffing remains significantly below estimated operational requirements.
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office was keen to point to UKSV’s use of surge staff from other departments,37 although there were just 13 such staff between January and November 2022 alongside about 50 contingent labour staff (see also Figure 1).38 It said the use of more contingent labour solved the need to fit within wider Civil Service aspirations around headcount numbers, although “by the time you recruit, you vet and you train, it takes a long time.”39 The Cabinet Office expects UKSV to maintain its own headcount number at no higher than 832 FTEs at March 2023. It has, however, authorised an additional 163 contingent labour and temporary staff from other government departments, bringing the total to 995, still 160 short of the estimated requirement of 1,145. UKSV aims to bridge that gap through efficiencies and automation of processes coming out of its delivery stabilisation plan.40 As well as internal changes to increase productivity, the Cabinet Office told us UKSV was working with departments to improve the accuracy and completeness of applications, to reduce the amount of remedial action required from UKSV staff, which restricts their productivity.41 35 Q30 36 C&AG Report, Figure 8 37 Qq 40, 41 38 C&AG’s Report, Figure 9 39 Q 43 40 C&AG’s Report, para 2.10 41 Q 50 The performance of UK Security Vetting 15
Government Response Summary
The government states it has implemented measures, securing funding for a temporary surge of contingent labour and fixed-term contracts for 2023-24 to clear backlogs, and is making progress recruiting digital professionals for transformation.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 UKSV has identified a requirement for a temporary surge of contingent labour and fixed term contracts for the financial year 2023-24 to support the meeting of customer demand and stabilisation of performance through clearance of the backlog of cases. Burden-share partners have agreed to fund this surge. The Cabinet Office has provided UKSV with the necessary approvals. There have been significant efforts over several months to recruit to the levels needed, and although UKSV is operating in a challenging market, good progress has been made. 4.3 In addition to recruitment, the training and deployment of staff into the vetting process is a significant undertaking and UKSV has redirected the majority of its enabling resources to support this activity. UKSV currently assesses that the funding and approvals are appropriate for the demands of the programme but will review this jointly with customers and Cabinet Office approvals teams in September 2023. 4.4 On the transformation programme, progress has been made on recruiting digital professionals to support the existing in-house IT delivery model. This remains a significant area of risk given the competitive market conditions for these skills. The outputs of the ongoing digital discovery exercise will inform the resourcing model and wider delivery approach for transformation moving forward. This approach will be set out in an Outline Business Case for consideration in October 2023.