Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
UK Security Vetting staff suffer significant change fatigue from continuous organisational shifts.
Conclusion
When asked about the mismatch between UKSV’s claims of increased productivity and staff survey results showing a high level of disengagement, UKSV’s chief executive pointed to the innate pride of its staff in the work they do to protect national security but admitted that many are suffering from change fatigue. Staff have had to contend with the move of vetting services from the former Foreign & Commonwealth Office and MOD to the Cabinet Office, changing systems, processes and policies and most recently, changes to some of the skills and tools staff use for vetting because of digitisation and automation.42 UKSV’s chief executive suggested that staff “would like a bit of stability and some investment” as “they have not had a period of stability for a very long time”.43
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.