Guidance

How to make a complaint to United Kingdom Security Vetting

Updated 23 May 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-make-a-complaint-to-united-kingdom-security-vetting/how-to-make-a-complaint-to-united-kingdom-security-vetting

What a complaint is

A complaint is “any expression of dissatisfaction about the service provided that cannot be resolved by operational staff as part of normal business.”

You can contact UKSV about any aspect of the service you’ve received, including:

  • mistakes that you feel have been made
  • unreasonable delays
  • how you’ve been treated
  • government vetting policy

We cannot investigate complaints:

  • regarding decisions to withdraw or refuse clearance as there is a separate appeal process for this - you should contact your sponsoring organisation
  • that cover employment issues – you should contact your employer in the usual way
  • that are, or have been, subject to legal processing, including legal settlements
  • that have been previously handled and concluded prior to the implementation of the new process

How to make a complaint

If you’d like to complain about any aspect of the service you’ve received, let us know by contacting the UKSV Complaints Team as soon as possible. We’ll do our best to put things right. Please be assured that any complaint you make will have no impact on the outcome of a vetting decision as complaints are handled independently of any team assessing clearances.

You can do this in the following ways:

UKSV
Complaints Team
Building 107
Imphal Barracks
York
YO10 4AS

When you contact us, please tell us:

  • your full name, address and contact details including phone number
  • your date of birth
  • case ID (if relevant)
  • sponsor ID (if relevant)
  • what happened, when it happened and how it affected you
  • what you want to happen to put things right

What happens next

  • we will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and we will assign a dedicated member of the complaints team to manage your complaint
  • we will provide a full response to your complaint, or an update on progress within 25 working days. If it is not possible to give you a full reply within this time, we will continue to manage your complaint and update you on progress until your issues have been resolved
  • if we’ve made a mistake, we’ll put it right as soon as possible and apologise immediately
  • please note: the complaints process has no involvement in any questions relating to compensation

If you disagree with the outcome of your complaint

You can ask for your complaint to be escalated and for UKSV to review your complaint again.

If you disagree with UKSV’s final response

There is an avenue for independent adjudication. However, complaints will need to meet criteria before being considered at this level. You will need to outline why you want your complaint escalated outside of UKSV and the grounds for escalation will be considered by the independent adjudication team before they agree to take it on.

Immediate access to independent adjudication

In some rare circumstances if your complaint is serious enough and you have legitimate grounds for believing that UKSV will not handle your complaint fairly, you may be able to bypass UKSV and have immediate access to the independent adjudication team.

Service Standards

Please read our Vetting Charter.

When you make a complaint you can trust us to:

  • update you during each stage in the process
  • explain delays and our reasoning for needing longer to respond to your complaint
  • treat you with respect
  • tell you what to do next if you are not satisfied with our response

When you make a complaint we expect you to:

  • respect our staff
  • understand and appreciate that complaints can often be complex and that we may need to extend the timeframe for a response
  • work with us in investigating your complaint including providing us with the relevant information to help us in answering your concerns
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