Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how long, on average, it takes for security vetting to be completed in (1) security and policing jobs, and (2) other public service jobs which require security clearance.

As Minister for State at the Cabinet Office responsible for United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) I am able to provide a response in relation to National Security Vetting (NSV). Police Vetting and NSV remain two separate and distinct processes. Whilst all police personnel are required to undertake a level of police vetting, only police personnel within certain specific roles are required to undertake NSV. Whilst UKSV acts as service providers for NSV, they have no involvement in processing police vetting. This remains the responsibility of police authorities.

Following a stabilisation programme initiated in 2023, there have been sustained and stable improvements in performance against Key Performance Indicators (KPI) across all service levels of National Security Vetting clearances which includes Counter Terrorist Check (CTC), Security Check (SC) and Developed Vetting (DV). Across core services:

• The KPIs for both CTC and SC are 25 days, on 29th February 2024 96% of cases were being processed within that time frame.

• The KPI for DV is 95 days; on 29th February 2024 93.48% of initial DV cases were being processed within that time frame.The Performance Indicator for DV Renewals is also 95 days; on 29th February 2024 13.78% of these cases were being processed within that time frame. However we expect that DV renewals submitted from 1st April 2024 will be delivered within the KPI of 95 days.

Security roles are based across many departments and partner agencies and therefore it is not possible to provide confirmation of the performance of NSV in relation to these specific roles. In relation to the police requirement for NSV specifically, I can confirm that UKSV are meeting the KPIs across the SC and initial DV products.

In line with the practice followed by successive administrations, the Government does not otherwise comment on security matters, including average actual processing times.