Who can hold a Contractor's Security Clearance

[IP101]

A DVA SC clearance is already held!
What Entity can hold my clearance when I am a contractor?
What are the cost and terms I should look for (bad & good)?
Does it make a difference if I am self employed, LTD,LCC, Start up Corp?
I was full time permanent for a Global Company & now want to work as a contractor. Often assignments may have gaps between assignments, ex. supporting bids, funds released or several low level drawn out tasks for different companies going at the same time, ex consulting.
Umbrellas can do accounting but who handles holds the clearance?

Thanks for accurate detailed 2016 information.

[SimonMac]

A DVA SC clearance is already held!
What Entity can hold my clearance when I am a contractor?
What are the cost and terms I should look for (bad & good)?
Does it make a difference if I am self employed, LTD,LCC, Start up Corp?
I was full time permanent for a Global Company & now want to work as a contractor. Often assignments may have gaps between assignments, ex. supporting bids, funds released or several low level drawn out tasks for different companies going at the same time, ex consulting.
Umbrellas can do accounting but who handles holds the clearance?

Thanks for accurate detailed 2016 information.

Clearance is role based, so the only people who can "hold" it is the client

[MrMarkyMark]

I believe each role has separate clearance, it can't be held for you.

[northernladuk]

I believe will be held by the last organisation that it was transferred to. If you did some work for Client xx and you take a break and start with client YY someone will have to contact the security team and Client xx and get it transferred from them to YY. The organisations can only be List X organisations.

Although SC is valid for 10 years it will lapse if it's not used within a year and it is per role so I wouldn't assume just because you had it at the last gig that it will be valid for the next one (although it appears in many cases it can be transferred).

More information here.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/security...-and-clearance

That said there are a raft of documents about SC and particularly articles related to contractors. Try googling it. Something like this. Many of the articles are a bit too high level but if you dig through them you'll find the answer to most of your questions.

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=security...ce+contractors

If you are still with your employer that holds your clearance I'd give the security team a ring and get them to tell you exactly what the score is.

[IP101]

So multiple people can hold the clearance for me at the same time?

I believe each role has separate clearance, it can't be held for you.

Give you example:
Niteworks requests support over 4 month period with meeting about once every 3-4 weeks to review input and progress from group/committee. Not enough to pay the bills, but interesting & great on the CV.
So one takes a overlapping assignment to review a portion of technical bid.
Then some asks for analysis of MODAF views OV. (There may or may not be follow on work for SV or TV views but in hope of more work does this as well.)

So three tasks 3 distinct roles possibly three different primes and 1-3 different clients (Army Training, DECISTAR, etc.

So three clients hold it, its 3 different roles? I thought the companies who are paying me or ??? hold it. They have the security officers, who in the past requested the identification documentation and send the paper work, notifying DVA of action.

[malvolio]

Just a really wild idea, but have you thought of reading through this thread - or the first half dozen pages at least...?

It's a sticky for a reason.

[IP101]

Just a really wild idea, but have you thought of reading through this thread - or the first half dozen pages at least...?

It's a sticky for a reason.

I appreciate your interest. Yes, I read quite a few comments before starting this string but found the latest post was 2010 and that why I said 2016, i.e. current information.
It also says near the beginning the goal of that writer was to provide a quick over all summary. This is not about why clearances are important, how to qualify for one, etc .
I had written emails and called several very large (UK Wide) contractor recruiting agencies to ask them before starting this inquiry and none knew. It was a contract company recruiter why recommend I look into this forum. Hopefully a security officer for one of the large firms, MODIS, REED, TXM, etc will respond.

[SuperZ]

SC clearance is usually 5 years for contractors or 10 for permanent staff.However, if you switch from perm to contracting they can trim off up to 5 years depending on what's left..
Although it's per role it's usually transferable. If you leave a cleared position it remains with (is held by) the last organisation you worked with that required it, and usually remains active for 1 year then lapses if you do not return to the organisation or if it's not transferred and used for another role.

SC cleared roles don't seem so common at the moment and expect for many it'll lapse.

Hopefully this answers the exact question and saves you trawling through an entire message thread

[malvolio]

As it says in the thread, clearance goes with the role and by inference the post holder. Who the individual is and how many other roles they hold is therefore irrelevant, it's the local SSO that owns any given clearance.

Clearly they will work together on many occasions but it is not certain; police and MOD SCs are based on different criteria for example, so there may well be no commonality. Hence your question is unanswerable other than by the local authorities involved.

And clearance rules haven't changed since WW2, so that thread is still relevant.

HTH

[Lance]

. Hopefully a security officer for one of the large firms, MODIS, REED, TXM, etc will respond.

Forget the agencies. They can't apply for, or hold any clearances. They know even less about how it works.

It will be MOD attached companies (Rolls-Royce, BAE etc.) or large consultancies (HP, BT etc.)

They pay around £8k to get you cleared. You'll never even see the clearance but you may get an email telling you that you've passed. I think it's £25k for DV clearance.

You cannot get it yourself, or keep it yourself. You have be sponsored by a valid company so agencies who insist you already have it have to find people who are still in a role that needs it, or less than 1 year out a role that needed it.