Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the average length of time taken to complete security and background checks on border force applicants.

BPSS (Baseline Personnel Security Standard) checks are required for Home Office roles. Checks for external applicants include the following:

• Civil Service eligibility;
• right to work / ID / address checks;
• employment history verification;
• health checks (where required); and,
• checks relating to security and integrity, including some role-specific checks for Border Force Officers.

Due to the highly contextual, case-by-case nature of recruitment, it would be neither feasible nor instructive to provide an average timespan.