Commonwealth security checks will be conducted by a single agency from October 2010.

Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, Minister for Defence, Senator John Faulkner, and Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, have announced the establishment of a single agency to improve the security vetting process.

Mr McClelland said centralisation of security checks would deliver savings of at least $5.3 million per year.

“Currently more than 100 agencies replicate the process of security vetting while more than 50 agencies hold separate contracts with vetting service providers,” Mr McClelland said.

“The introduction of a single vetting agency will remove this inefficient duplication.”

Senator Faulkner said the Department of Defence would provide an “efficient and cost effective” vetting agency to deliver quicker security clearances with less paperwork.

Up to 50,000 security clearances were conducted across the Commonwealth in 2007-08.