Guidance

Government baseline personnel security standard

Guidance on the pre-employment screening of civil servants, members of the armed forces, temporary staff and government contractors.

Documents

UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard - Version 7.0 - June 2024 (PDF)

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This publication describes the pre-employment controls for all civil servants, members of the armed forces, temporary staff and government contractors generally. It also underpins national security vetting.

These personnel security controls must be applied to people who, in the course of their work, has access to government assets. Every effort must be made to complete the baseline personnel security standard, but where it cannot be applied this must be risk managed and the details recorded for audit purposes.

Updates to this page

Published 1 April 2014
Last updated 28 June 2024 + show all updates
  1. Updated UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) (Version 7.0, June 2024) published. Available in HTML and PDF formats with Annexes A and B also available in Open Document format (.odt)

  2. PDF updated due to new GDPR regulations of May 2018.

  3. Have replaced the attached document with an updated version.

  4. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page