Security Intelligence Review Committee / Comité de surveillance des activités de renseignement de sécurité
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Security Intelligence Review Committee

Annual Report 1997-1998 - An Operational Audit of CSIS Activities

Appendix E: Security Screening Statistics

In fiscal year 1997-98, the Service issued 70,465 security assessments and completed 1,250 field investigations and subject interviews. In the vast majority of cases, the Service's security assessment takes the form of a simple notice to departments.

Table 1
Number of Completed Assessments Issued by Level of Clearance

Classification

*New or Upgraded Requests for Security Clearances

**Update of Security Clearances

Level I (Confidential)

576

318

Level II (Secret)

10,506

4,726

Level III (Top Secret)

2,179

4,325

Accreditation

1,241

7

Airport

26,703

174

Special events

19,534

176

* Upgrade requests are processed when the new duties or tasks of a person require that the individual have a higher level of screening than previously.

** Departments must update an individual's enhanced reliability status security clearance (Levels I and II) once every 10 years. Site access security clearances also must be updated every 10 years. A Level III security clearance must be updated every 5 years. These update terms do not preclude a department from reviewing a person's reliability status or from asking CSIS to reassess the clearance "for cause".

The Service's average response times to process security clearances for Government Security Policy (GSP) Levels I, II, III during 1997-98 were 1, 20, and 118 days respectively,

Screening Assessments for Foreign States and International Organizations

During fiscal 1997-98, the volume of requests that the Service received for screening assessment recommendations were,

Inland

28,687

United States

4,352

Overseas Posts

20,195

SLO Information Tracking

3,57840

Total

56,812

Advice to Citizenship and Immigration Canada

The number of briefs issued by CSIS to CIC is provided in Table 2:

Table 2
Number of Briefs Issued by CSIS

Type

1995-96

1996-97

1997-98

Information Briefs

47

144

94

Inadmissibilty Briefs
- No Threat

51

90

108

Inadmissibilty Briefs
- Threat

5

5

9

Total

103

239

211

CIC coordinates the review of all cases that present security concerns, and such review can involve interdepartmental consultations. However, in all instances, CIC makes the final determination.