The Whitehall department responsible for security screening has presided over a growing backlog that poses risks to national security and the “functioning of government”, MPs warned on Friday.
The Cabinet Office, which coordinates policy implementation in concert with other departments, assumed responsibility for UK Security Vetting (UKSV) in April 2020, giving it control over access to government information, including top secret files.
The report comes at a time of growing public frustration over backlogs building up across many public institutions, from the NHS, the Passport Office, to the processing of asylum seekers.
It also coincides with growing calls, including within the ruling party Conservative partyfor the resignation of Simon Case, who heads the department, after a tumultuous time in public service.
The parliamentary cross-party public accounts committee, which scrutinizes government spending, said the Cabinet Office had proven an obstacle to UKSV reform.
He concluded that the department was “creating a risky environment that many users across government are uncomfortable with.”
The committee also said it was concerned about “complacency” over the renewal of clearances for civil servants already in post, and that the UKSV had been understaffed since its inception in 2017.
“The Cabinet Office seems deaf to the discomfort of staff across government at the level of risk created by its failure to get our national security check services under control,” said Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee. .
The report says the UKSV has failed to meet key targets since July 2021 for the strictest levels of security screening required when individuals have frequent and uncontrolled access to top secret assets.
It had also missed targets for lower-level clearances in 30 of the past 60 months, according to the report, and noted that the backlog continued to grow.
“The Cabinet Office. . . seems content to repeatedly extend DV [developed vetting, the highest security clearance in the UK] renewals as a way to manage demand, despite the associated increased risk,” the report said.
Many government departments relying on the process were “uncomfortable” about the potential consequences, he added.
“All of this is completely unacceptable. We expect the Cabinet Office to immediately initiate and implement productive changes in response to this report,” Hillier said.
The report recommended that the department indicate how the backlog will be cleared, when the UKSV will achieve its targets and what changes it will make to working practices to avoid future delays.
The Cabinet Office said turnaround times for the highest level of authorization had more than halved from April 2022 to April 2023, adding that it was continuing to reform and improve vetting processes.
“This has already successfully completed over 200,000 security checks over the past year with the highest annual level of DV clearances since the UKSV was established in 2017.”
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