Failure of NAO judging performance

UK Security Vetting (UKSV)’s performance has “worsened significantly” over 2021-2022.
Turnaround time for DV DV (Developed Vetting) clearance according to official audit.

The UKSV has not met its CTC (Counter Terrorist Check) and SC (Security Check) clearance targets since August 2021 and has not met its DV clearance targets since May 2021. Performance since last audit in 2018.

NAO Director Gareth Davis said:

“The UKSV needs to build on its Stabilization Plan initiative to take a sustainable path to meet the growing demand for scrutiny, and for the Cabinet Office to set a clear path to meaningful reform. is essential, including hiring and retaining the talent to implement and manage sustainable improvements.”

On the IT side, the Cabinet Office’s early efforts to modernize IT were nearly 50% over budget, with £2.5m written off in an official audit. The UKSV is still using IT systems it wanted to abandon in 2018 due to lack of capacity, slowness and the need for many manual workarounds, the audit found. increase. As for staffing, the lack of professional staff continues to be a major obstacle, according to the report. UKSV has consistently struggled with recruitment. The company relies heavily on contractors, even though it has largely turned to an in-house approach after his previous attempts at IT transformation failed.

The Ministry of Defense remains the UKSV’s largest ‘customer’, accounting for 56% of all customs clearance requests. Since January 2022, UKSV has been handling accreditation checks, a new legal requirement for people working in airlines. Of these, just over 100,000 had been processed by the end of September 2022.

Background

UK Security Vetting was formed in January 2017 through a merger of the vetting services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense (MoD). UKSV was part of the Ministry of Defense at the time, although the Cabinet Office set the policy. In April 2020, UKSV entered the Cabinet Office as part of the Government Security Group.

You can read the 49-page report on ‘British security inspection performance’ on the NAO website www.nao.org.uk.