Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Fifty-Third Report - The performance of UK Security Vetting
Public Accounts Committee
HC 994
Published 12 May 2023
Recommendations
2
Accepted
Require Cabinet Office to improve customer forecasting and UKSV resilience to demand changes.
Recommendation
The Cabinet Office is over reliant on customer demand forecasts and failed to predict changes in demand for security vetting. UKSV’s customers provide demand forecasts each October to enable it to assess what level of resources it will need for …
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Government Response Summary
The Cabinet Office agrees and will improve UKSV's forecasting and resilience by undertaking a full review of processes, engaging with other departments and major customers, and implementing new agreements on demand management.
HM Treasury
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4
Accepted
Require Cabinet Office to detail UKSV's required resourcing and close staff shortfalls.
Recommendation
UKSV cannot deliver timely security vetting across government with its current staff levels. Despite its essential role in protecting national security, UKSV has been under-staffed to meet customer demand forecasts since its inception in 2017. In April 2021, when faced …
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Government Response Summary
The Cabinet Office has approved funding for a temporary surge of contingent labour and fixed-term contracts for UKSV in 2023-24 to clear backlogs. It will review funding in September 2023 and present a transformation resourcing model in an Outline Business Case in October 2023.
HM Treasury
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6
Accepted
Set out a clear implementation plan for security vetting transformation with realistic milestones.
Recommendation
We are not convinced that current plans for the transformation of security vetting are any more likely to succeed than previous failed attempts. The Cabinet Office’s first attempt at modernising the IT infrastructure for national security vetting failed, after unknowingly …
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Government Response Summary
The government has commissioned a 10-week enhanced discovery phase to advise on vetting transformation delivery, which will inform an Outline Business Case for October 2023. This business case will include a high-level implementation plan, which the Cabinet Office will share later.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (16)
3
Conclusion
Accepted
We are concerned about the level of risk created by the Cabinet Office’s decision to repeatedly defer renewals for DV clearances. Existing DV clearances are 6 The performance of UK Security Vetting normally reviewed after seven years to ensure that individual’s circumstances have not materially changed and that the initial …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to address the backlog of DV renewals by providing a significant injection of surge resources, including HMRC personnel, to UKSV this financial year, aiming for sustained performance by 2024.
5
Conclusion
Accepted
The governance structure of UKSV within Cabinet Office is a barrier to transformation. UKSV’s chief executive and the government chief security officer have low levels of delegated spending authority which means they require approval from the Cabinet Office Approvals Board for any spending over £500,000. That Board has repeatedly refused …
Government Response Summary
The government has completed an independent governance review and will implement an enhanced governance structure, including better representation of Cabinet Office functions and customers, and clearer distinctions between policy approval and delivery. Implementation began in June 2023.
1
Conclusion
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office about the performance of UK Security Vetting (UKSV).1 UKSV, which sits within the Cabinet Office, is the main government provider of national security vetting. Security vetting provides assurance on individuals working …
Government Response Summary
The government has made strong progress in the Delivery Stabilisation Programme, with significant increases in vetting case completions and reduced turnaround times, supported by new surge resources. It has set milestones to fully stabilise vetting services for DV Initials by June 2023, SC/CTC by September 2023, and DV Reviews by March 2024.
8
Conclusion
Accepted
UKSV relies on customer demand forecasts in October ahead of each financial year, to enable it to plan for the resources it will need. For 2020–21, customers over-forecast how many clearances they were likely to need, unaware of the coming COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a drop in demand for clearances. …
Government Response Summary
UKSV is undertaking a full review of forecasting and demand planning processes in collaboration with customers for 2024/25, planning engagement with other government departments for best practice, and implementing agreements with customers for demand handling, alongside improved management information.
9
Conclusion
Accepted
The Cabinet Office told us that while some departments are very good at forecasting, others struggle. UKSV has therefore put a lot of effort into improving its management information to help it work with customers on predictive analytics, to improve the accuracy of their forecasts. The Cabinet Office said UKSV …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to improve forecasting and demand planning for 2024/25, with UKSV undertaking a full review of processes, planning engagement exercises, and proactive engagement with high-demand customers.
10
Conclusion
Accepted
When we asked what was being done to make UKSV more resilient and better able to deal with future upsurges in demand, the Cabinet Office offered us three solutions: 15 Q 26 16 Qq 22, 23; C&AG’s 2023 Report, Figures 10 and 11 17 C&AG’s 2023 Report, paras 2.3, 2.4 …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the implied need for resilience, committing UKSV to a full review of forecasting and demand planning processes, engagement exercises, and proactive customer engagement for 2024/25.
11
Conclusion
Accepted
Each DV clearance is normally reviewed after seven years to ensure that individuals’ circumstances have not materially changed and that the initial clearance remains valid. In 2018 the Cabinet Office Government Security Board first took the decision to implement a 12-month extension to some renewals to help UKSV recover performance …
Government Response Summary
The government plans to stabilise the DV renewal service line by March 2024, supported by a significant injection of surge resources for the current financial year to clear the backlog and ensure continuity of service on other products.
12
Conclusion
Accepted
The Cabinet Office defended the repeated policy decision to defer renewals on the grounds that it was “risk-based and a decision taken with our customers”. It acknowledged that the cumulative impact of deferring renewals for several years created additional challenges but also said that “if you have a choice between …
Government Response Summary
The government plans to stabilise the DV renewal service line by March 2024, supported by a significant injection of surge resources for the current financial year to clear the backlog and ensure continuity of service on other products.
13
Conclusion
Accepted
The Cabinet Office sought to reassure us that UKSV did not stop processing renewals altogether, but that it had continued to process renewals at a lower rate, adopting a risk- based, data-driven approach. “Should an adverse indicator arise [from newly introduced automated data checks], we absolutely then moved forward with …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states UKSV plans to stabilise the DV renewal service line by the end of March 2024, supported by a significant injection of surge resources to address the backlog.
14
Conclusion
Accepted
UKSV has been under-staffed to meet customer demand forecasts since its inception in 2017, which has had negative impacts on its performance. In April 2021, when demand surged following the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, UKSV had 669 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff against the 985 FTE it expected to need to …
Government Response Summary
The government states it has implemented measures to address understaffing by securing funding and approvals for a temporary surge of contingent labour and fixed-term contracts for 2023-24 to clear backlogs and stabilise performance.
15
Conclusion
Accepted
Under-staffing has led UKSV to make trade-offs in what service areas it focuses on. For example, the UKSV chief executive told us that by focusing on new DV clearances it was unable to resource aftercare checks to the levels needed.35 Likewise, the focus on new DV clearances saw average clearance …
Government Response Summary
UKSV has identified a need for and secured funding for a temporary surge of contingent labour for 2023-24 to address backlogs and stabilise performance, making progress on recruitment and training. For the transformation programme, efforts are ongoing to recruit digital professionals, with a discovery exercise to inform the future resourcing model in an October 2023 business case.
16
Conclusion
Accepted
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 …
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.
17
Conclusion
Accepted
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. …
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.
18
Conclusion
Accepted
Recruitment challenges have also hampered progress on the vetting transformation programme. In November 2021, UKSV only managed to fill five out of 44 digital roles despite multiple costly, labour-intensive campaigns, with uncompetitive salaries seen as a key factor. In September 2022, despite a partial exemption for digital roles from the …
Government Response Summary
UKSV has identified a need for and secured funding for a temporary surge of contingent labour for 2023-24 to address backlogs and stabilise performance, making progress on recruitment and training. For the transformation programme, efforts are ongoing to recruit digital professionals, with a discovery exercise to inform the future resourcing model in an October 2023 business case.
19
Conclusion
Accepted
The Cabinet Office took on responsibility for both security vetting policy and operational delivery in April 2020, when UKSV transitioned from the Ministry of Defence to the Government Security Group within the Cabinet Office.47 The Cabinet Office controls UKSV’s headcount, and while UKSV’s funding costs (around £43 million per year) …
Government Response Summary
The government has completed an independent governance review and commenced implementing an enhanced UKSV governance structure, which will ensure full representation of Cabinet Office functions and customers, clear distinctions in policy/delivery, and strengthened oversight.
21
Conclusion
Accepted
When asked about her past experiences, UKSV’s chief executive cited governance as the main difference between her experience of running a government change programme compared with running a private sector change programme.54 She said that there was a lot of governance around investment and the change agenda, as UKSV had …
Government Response Summary
The government has completed an independent governance review that endorsed the committee's findings, and UKSV has commenced implementation of an enhanced governance structure addressing observations, including corporate and customer representation, distinct policy/delivery management, and strengthened oversight.