The official standard is 85% of initial Developed Vetting cases completed within 95 net days. The last performance figure the UK Government published was 93.48%, dated 29 February 2024. Nothing more recent exists in the public domain. Every market claim of six to nine months is agency estimate, not government data.
Key takeaways
- The published DV service standard is 85% of routine initial cases inside 95 net days, set out by the National Audit Office in January 2023.
- The most recent official performance figure is 31 months old. UKSV publishes no current processing times and has refused freedom of information requests for them.
- DV renewals, not initial applications, are the real failure point. They were running at 13.78% against the same 95-day indicator.
- Sponsor error is the best evidenced cause of delay. Applications with no valid sponsor are returned to source and applications filed during unresolved police matters are cancelled outright.
- A DV clearance can move between employers under four stated conditions, but no transfer timescale has ever been published.
What is the official DV service standard?
85% of routine initial Developed Vetting cases should complete within 95 days, a figure confirmed by the National Audit Office investigation into the performance of UK Security Vetting on 18 January 2023. Priority DV carries a tighter standard of 95% within 30 days, per the Public Accounts Committee report of 12 May 2023. Routine CTC and SC sit at 85% within 25 days. The Accreditation Check averages five days or less.
One detail changes how you read all of it. The KPI counts net days, not elapsed calendar days, as the NAO states directly. Time spent waiting on the applicant, on referees or on third party organisations is netted out of the measure. A candidate who experiences five months of elapsed waiting can still sit inside a 95-day net figure, which is why official performance and candidate experience diverge so sharply.
Worth knowing where this clearance sits in the wider structure before you brief a hiring manager on timing, because the gap between SC and DV is the gap that catches most employers out. Our breakdown of where DV sits against CTC and SC sets out the access each level grants and the checks behind it.
What did the last published DV performance figure show?
93.48% of initial DV cases met the 95-day indicator as at 29 February 2024, answered in written question HL2868 on 18 March 2024. That recovery was steep. Performance ran at 7% in April 2022, 54% by November 2022, 66.4% by February 2023 and 91.22% by December 2023.
The renewals picture is the one worth taking to a board. Against the same indicator and the same date, DV renewals stood at 13.78%. In November 2022 the average DV renewal took 255 days, longer than the 190-day average in April 2022, while new clearances in the same window had fallen to a 98-day average from 177 days. Renewals got worse while initial applications got better.
Then the data stops. The 29 February 2024 snapshot is the most recent official DV performance figure published anywhere. The Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25 contains no vetting performance data. The Government declined in HL2868 to give average actual processing times for anything other than Accreditation Checks, and said the numbers awaiting vetting could not be shared. A June 2024 freedom of information request to UKSV for current completion times was refused. UKSV’s own organisation page on gov.uk publishes no service standards or processing times at all.
Why does the market quote six to nine months?
Because agencies repeat each other. No UK government source states a six to nine month DV duration, and no per-stage DV timing is published on any gov.uk page. The DV Guidance Pack says only that the length “will vary from person to person”. Treat any specific month range you are quoted as an estimate from the firm quoting it.
What is evidenced is the pressure on the system. Kevin Craven, Chief Executive of ADS, told the House of Commons Defence Committee on 4 March 2025:
“We have gone from managing roughly 200 or 300 security clearances a year to over 7,000 now.”
Asked whether the wait was a serious or a moderate problem, Craven answered that “the length of time to get one is a serious problem”. DV requests ran 57% above forecast in 2021-22. The Vetting Transformation Programme that was meant to deliver portable clearances and shorter processing times was closed, ratified by the Government Security Board in September 2024, with no replacement programme carrying a published timetable.
What adds months to a DV application?
Sponsor error, applicant non-response and third party checks. The Government does not publish a ranked list of delay factors, but it does publish enumerated sponsor failures, and those are the ones a hiring business controls.
Which sponsor errors stop an application dead?
Four, all set out in the UKSV sponsor guidance updated 11 November 2024. Applications without a valid sponsor, or with incorrect sponsorship, are returned to source. Applications submitted while the applicant has ongoing, unresolved police matters are cancelled, and sponsors are instructed not to submit them. Missing information in the sponsor section prompts UKSV to contact the sponsor, which stalls progress. A sponsor portal account must exist before anything is submitted, and setting one up takes up to five working days on its own.
A cancelled application does not pause, it restarts, and the issues most likely to end one outright are worth screening for before a candidate is put forward rather than after.
What applicant errors cost the most time?
Missing documents and silence. UKSV states that any delay in providing interview documents is likely to delay the clearance, and that failure to respond to an information request means the application “may be cancelled”. The NAO recorded incomplete forms and missed appointments as causes UKSV has raised with its customers. The DV Guidance Pack confirms that multiple checks from different agencies “can sometimes result in delays”, and NAO work going back to September 2018 found delays arising from waiting on third parties and from applicants not submitting sufficient information.
Residency history is the factor most often misread. The published five-year rule tests something narrower than most hiring managers assume, and our analysis of how UKSV assesses residency for dual nationals sets out what is actually examined. Before any of it begins, the employer must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard itself, and the full checks behind each level are set out in our guide to what each UK clearance level grants access to.
Nuclear roles carry an extra layer. The Office for Nuclear Regulation has confirmed it works to the UKSV benchmark of 85% within 95 days, has no equivalent KPI of its own, and aims for “a further 95 days” after that. For a nuclear DV role, the defensible planning assumption is up to roughly 190 days in total, not 95.
Can a DV clearance transfer to a new employer?
Yes, under four stated conditions. The clearance must be no older than seven years for DV. There must be no more than 12 months between leaving one organisation and joining another. The individual must not have lived overseas for more than six months where there has been a break in service. The importing department may apply a shorter validity period than the original.
MOD adds its own rules. The expiry date must not have passed, a DV extension of up to six months may be transferred where the holder stayed in continuous employment, and any change in personal circumstances must have been reported on a Change of Personal Circumstances form or the transfer may be delayed. The mechanism is that the new employing sponsor submits the transfer request, and transfers can be at the same level or a lower one.
Two things follow that most briefs get wrong. No transfer timescale has ever been published, so the familiar claim that transfers complete in weeks rather than months has no source behind it. And the clearance is not the candidate’s to carry: UKSV investigates and recommends, while the sponsoring department decides and holds the clearance against the role. Our cleared defence and MOD recruitment team runs the transfer eligibility check at shortlist stage rather than at offer.
What does a cleared candidate cost in the current market?
£600 a day is the DV cleared contract median across the six months to 13 October 2026, drawn from 2,265 contract adverts on ITJobsWatch. SC cleared sits at £545 across 9,107 adverts in the same window. On permanent roles the DV cleared median is £75,000, up 7.14% year on year.
The movement matters more than the levels. The DV day rate has been flat year on year while SC rose 3.81%, so the DV premium has compressed to around 10%. The advert volumes tell you why: roughly four SC cleared contract roles exist for every DV cleared one. DV scarcity is real on the supply side, but advertised demand is concentrated at SC, which is where most employers should be testing whether the role genuinely needs DV at all.
How do you protect a start date on a DV role?
- Confirm the role genuinely requires DV rather than SC before writing the brief, using the access definitions rather than custom.
- Set up and verify the sponsor portal account first, allowing the five working days it can take.
- Screen for unresolved police matters before submission, since an application filed during one is cancelled.
- Check transfer eligibility on every cleared candidate against the four conditions, including the 12-month gap and the six-month overseas rule.
- Complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard in full before the DV application goes in, because it is the employer’s responsibility and not UKSV’s.
- Brief the candidate that interview documents and information requests carry a cancellation risk if they go unanswered.
- Plan on elapsed time rather than net days, and add the regulator’s additional stage for nuclear roles.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official figure for how long DV takes in 2026?
No. The published standard is 85% of initial cases within 95 net days, but the most recent actual performance figure is 93.48% as at 29 February 2024. UKSV publishes no current processing times and has refused freedom of information requests for them.
Why do DV renewals take longer than new applications?
Renewals were measured at 13.78% against the 95-day indicator at 29 February 2024, against 93.48% for initial cases. The average DV renewal took 255 days in November 2022, having worsened from 190 days in April 2022. Renewals use the same mandatory checks, though the referee interview may be excluded.
Can a candidate start work while DV is in progress?
Not on work requiring that clearance. Interim clearance exists as a mechanism, confirmed in Public Accounts Committee evidence in April 2026, but it is granted by the sponsoring department rather than requested by an employer or candidate.
How long is a DV clearance valid?
Seven years for DV, against ten years for SC and CTC. A lapsed clearance is reinstatable only where the holder moves to another cleared role within 12 months of leaving.
What makes eDV different from DV?
Three things. The security questionnaire adds family and travel elements, a supervisor interview is required alongside the applicant and referee interviews, and the request itself needs prior agreement from both UKSV and the Cabinet Office. No eDV processing standard is published.
About the author
Peter Bates founded Scantec Personnel in 1990 and is its Managing Director, leading the business from its Birkenhead head office. Over more than 35 years he has built a specialist engineering, manufacturing and scientific recruiter working across nuclear, defence, FMCG and scientific markets. He writes on UK technical hiring, security clearance and contractor regulation.
