Home / Sources / National Audit Office / Investigation into the performance of UK Security Vetting
Source · National Audit Office

Investigation into the performance of UK Security Vetting

This report looks at how UKSV has performed in providing national security vetting services since 2018; what it is doing to ensure security vetting is completed in a timely way to ensure the continued protection and functioning of government; and what it is doing to modernise and reform.

Published: 18 Jan 2023 Recommendations: 5 Type: Value for Money NAO confirmed: 5 Department: Cabinet Office
Dept: Cabinet Office Topics: Defence and national security nao.org.uk →

Recommendations

5 items
5 accepted 5 implemented

Recommendation 1

Addressee: Cabinet Office · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 26, point a

The Cabinet Office should:
a recognise the importance of modernising the national security vetting process
and work quickly to design an implementation plan with key milestones in place;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · 2026/27 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Cabinet Office · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 26, point e

The Cabinet Office should ensure that there is sufficient resilience within UKSV to react to new events that might drive increased demand for security vetting

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · 04/2024 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 3

Addressee: Cabinet Office · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 26, point b

The Cabinet Office should ensure that governance structures are appropriate to enable effective challenge and scrutiny of UKSV without becoming an impediment to progressing work on national security vetting;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · 09/2024 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 4

Addressee: Cabinet Office · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 26, point c

The Cabinet Office should create a set of performance metrics that measures whether clearances are being processed in a timely and accurate way that meets customer needs and avoids perverse incentives

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · 01/2025 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 5

Addressee: Cabinet Office · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 26, point d

The Cabinet Office should recognise, and be clear across government, that given UKSV?s agreed resources, prioritising certain types of clearances will have knock-on impacts, both on routine clearance and on delivering long-term transformation

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · 09/2024 · Confirmed by NAO

Public Accounts Committee follow-up

1 report

The Public Accounts Committee examined this NAO report and published its own recommendations. The government responds to PAC recommendations via Treasury Minutes.