To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average waiting time is for processing (a) baseline personnel security standard, (b) accreditation check, (c) counter terrorist check, (d) security check, (e) enhanced security check, (f) developed vetting and (g) enhanced developed vetting as of 7 February 2024.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average waiting time was for processing (a) baseline personnel security standard, (b) accreditation check, (c) counter terrorist check, (d) security check, (e) enhanced security check, (f) developed vetting and (g) enhanced developed vetting on 1 February in each year since 2015.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of applicants failed (a) baseline personnel security standard, (b) accreditation check, (c) counter terrorist check, (d) security check, (e) enhanced security check, (f) developed vetting and (g) enhanced developed vetting in each year since 2015.

The Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) is conducted locally by departments as a pre-employment check. Although a personnel security control employed within His Majesty’s Government (HMG), it is not a level of National Security Vetting (NSV) administered by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV). As this is a localised departmental element, no central record of data for BPSS is held within HMG at this time.

I can confirm that on average Accreditation Checks (AC), a level of NSV, primarily used by the aviation industry, are being completed in five days or less.

I am unable to reveal the average processing time of other NSV checks as this is likely to prejudice national security. It would also impact the protective measures employed in safeguarding HMG. However, I am able to report 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).

• The KPIs for both CTC and SC are 25 days, on 7 February 2024 96.78% of cases were being processed within that timeframe. This has improved from 38.7% performance in February 2023.

• The KPI for DV is 95 days; on 7 February 2024 92.74% of initial DV cases were being processed within that timeframe. This has improved from 66.4% performance in February 2023.

• The Performance Indicator (PI) for DV renewals is 95 days; on 7 February 2024 10.52% of cases were being processed within that timeframe. This has improved from 7.15% in February 2023.

In 2023, UKSV implemented a stabilisation programme, prioritising the recovery of initial DV processing times, followed by SC and CTC processing times.

For enhanced security check (eSC) and enhanced developed vetting (eDV) respectively these are not NSV clearance levels but are additional safeguards and therefore are not measured in the same way as clearance levels.

In line with the practice followed by successive administrations, the Government does not otherwise comment on security matters.