The problem

As a minimum all government employees must meet the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) and for roles of a more sensitive nature higher levels of clearance are required. Although BPSS is comprehensive in assessing the eligibility of an individual to work in government, it doesn’t offer a comprehensive identity check. We are looking into strengthening employee vetting by validating the identity of individuals in addition to checking their eligibility.

What’s the discovery trying to find out?

The goal of this discovery is to explore:

• what the common needs across central and local government are for employee identity checks
• if we can use a digital verification of identity in a face to face setting – is this more secure and more convenient
• if we can implement a viable solution that mitigates sufficient risks to be worthwhile doing

To help achieve the goals of the discovery, we will be looking into:

• what policies exist for government identity checks
• the current processes within government for checking identity
• what level of identity assurance is required across government
• if there is a need to check all employees or just new ones
• whether GOV.UK Verify should be used
• the potential future uses for this functionality
• the best model for building and running this service

Want to get involved?

We are keen to speak to more local authorities about their recruitment and vetting processes.

Fill out this contact form if you’re interested in being part of this discovery or just want to be kept updated.