Professor Anthony Glees Dr Julian Richards University of ... - PCG

government departments, and via the Office of Government Commerce (OGC),which is responsible for ensuring maximum compliance and efficiency in thegovernment‟s commercial interfaces. The OGC noted in 2008, for example, in aProcurement Policy Note issued to all government departments, that „routineinclusion of national security vetting requirements, and in particular,unnecessary requests for contractors to hold an existing national securityclearance, run counter to Government policy in this area and have the potentialto contravene the EU procurement rules‟ 3 . Such guidance is, however, just that,and despite the warning by the OGC about potential breaches of EU regulations,it is not enforceable legally in the same way as in the case with respect todiscrimination in recruitment or other activities on grounds of race, gender ordisability. This potentially opens the door for such guidance to be ignored oroverlooked during the recruitment and contract award process.John Brazier, the Managing Director of PCG, noted at the November 2010colloquium that PCG had formed an internal Working Party on Security Clearancein May 2007. This made it plain that government departments, their primecontractors and the recruitment agencies were expected not to ask for priorsecurity clearances when procuring contractors, other than in exceptionalcircumstances. The aim was to ensure a level playing field for contractors andenhanced value for money for the taxpayer, by stipulating that all contractorsshould compete for contracts, and only have to obtain clearance once thecontract had been secured. The guidance aimed to ensure that competition wasmaintained, and the government had access to a large pool of skilled workers.PCG immediately began monitoring the impact of these changes, and compiled adossier of its evidence in December 2007. Unfortunately, the revised guidancehad almost no impact. Advertisements and subsequent contacts betweenagencies and contractors continued to create barriers to the application of anycontractor without pre-existing clearance.In 2009, further meetings took place between the Cabinet Office, PCG and theRecruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). Following this, Michael3 Procurement Policy Note, Information Note 09/08, 14 July 200831