Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the financial impact on UK Security Vetting applicants of waiting periods for security clearance.
Answered by Michael Ellis
No assessment has been made of the financial impact on applicants to UK Security Vetting of waiting periods for security clearance.
The purpose of National Security Vetting is to help safeguard National Security. Waiting periods for security clearance are driven by the time required to gather information from a range of sources on an applicant and the subsequent analysis of this information. Waiting times therefore vary accordingly.
Advice is provided to applicants that this process can take some time to complete. I am unable to comment further on the financial impact that this essential security control may have.
Work is ongoing within Cabinet Office to modernise and improve the effectiveness of vetting overall, in line with the Government’s wider modernisation agenda and to keep pace with the threats faced by the UK today. The modernisation aims to improve the end to end user experience for the applicant and sponsoring department and improve the speed of applications.