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<p>Her Majesty’s Government requires that National Security Vetting is conducted to
the same standard for all employees in sensitive roles, including those working for
government support services. Vetting is conducted centrally by United Kingdom Security
Vetting (UKSV). Vetting policy, which sits with the Cabinet Office, applies equally
to government personnel and private-sector employees on government contracts.</p><p><strong>
</strong></p><p>Cabinet Office encourages all government departments to uphold a set
of minimum personnel security standards and these may be applicable for certain industry
roles. ‘Support services’ is a broad category and could include everything from cleaning
and catering to IT provision, security and administration. In that context different
roles will have very different requirements and approaches are flexed depending on
the risk. It is the responsibility of individual government departments to determine
their security needs for each contract that they enter into. The requirement for vetting
will be decided based on a given role’s access to sensitive assets, facilities or
materials.</p><p><strong><p><p></strong></p><p>The procedures by which a private-sector
company or contractor can gain a vetting clearance are currently designed to prioritise
security as opposed to ubiquity; individuals must be able to demonstrate they will
be working on an active government contract before being granted a clearance. This
ensures tighter control of who is cleared, for what purpose and for how long.</p><p><strong>
</strong></p><p>A comprehensive, cross-government review of National Security Vetting
is underway. This will examine potential reforms in vetting for the private-sector
– including how we can improve the timeliness of security clearance and reduce the
administrative burden of it for small and medium enterprises.</p><p> </p>
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