Glossary
Every term the toolkit uses, in plain English. Nothing here is assumed knowledge, so if a word on any screen is not clear it should be on this page.
- A vetting level
- Police forces clear non-police staff to a level of Non-Police Personnel Vetting, or NPPV. Level 1 is the lightest. Level 2 Abbreviated allows regular unescorted access to non-sensitive police premises and to police information up to official-sensitive. Level 2 Full adds unsupervised access to police computer systems. Level 3 is higher again. Most disputes turn on the single step from Level 2 Abbreviated to Level 2 Full.
- A talk group
- A radio channel on the Airwave network.
- TEA2
- TEA2 stands for TETRA Encryption Algorithm 2. TETRA is the digital radio standard the Airwave network runs on. An organisation needs an Ofcom-approved TEA2 licence to use an Airwave radio.
- BS 7858:2019
- The British Standard for screening people who work in secure environments.
- BS 7958:2015
- The British Standard for running a CCTV control room.
- SIRO
- A Senior Information Risk Owner, the officer in a police force who is accountable for information risk.
- Airwave sharer
- An organisation outside the emergency services that Ofcom has approved to use Airwave, listed on the Airwave sharers list. Councils running CCTV control rooms are the usual example. Sharer status stays with the council even when a contractor runs the room. Being a sharer needs a TEA2 licence and a non-disclosure agreement with the police force. The radio is usually what prompts a vetting demand, but the sharer conditions themselves do not set a vetting level; that is a local police force decision.
- Common cipher key (CCK)
- The shared encryption setting that protects the talk groups a sharer is allowed to receive. Sharing is limited to talk groups protected by it, and those talk groups must not carry routine police traffic or primary dispatch.
- NPPV
- Non-Police Personnel Vetting, the clearance a police force gives to people who are not police staff. It runs from Level 1, through Level 2 Abbreviated and Level 2 Full, up to Level 3.
- BPSS
- The Baseline Personnel Security Standard, the basic pre-employment check used across government. It covers identity, right to work, criminal record and three years of employment history.
- Official-sensitive
- A government marking for information that needs care but is not secret. NPPV Level 2 Abbreviated already covers access to information marked official-sensitive.
- Secret
- A higher government marking than official-sensitive. Occasional access to material classified secret is one of the things that can justify NPPV Level 2 Full.
- Unsupervised access to police computer systems
- Being able to use a police computer system without a police officer or member of police staff alongside you. This is the one thing that separates NPPV Level 2 Full from Level 2 Abbreviated.
- ISSI
- The identity number of an individual Airwave radio. A control room is usually given a range of them.
- Encryption key category
- The category of encryption key loaded into an Airwave radio, which determines what the radio is allowed to receive. The police force sets it.
- SIA licence
- A licence issued by the Security Industry Authority, which public space CCTV operators must hold to do the job.
- Surveillance Camera Code of Practice
- The Home Office code for public space surveillance, against which many services self-assess.
- Annex B
- The evidence checklist at Annex B of the CCTV User Group's Airwave Vetting Protocol, the 24 things to have in front of you before you reply to a police force.
The documents this toolkit refers to
the College of Policing Vetting Code of Practice 2023
The College of Policing
A statutory code under section 39A of the Police Act 1996. Chief officers must have regard to it, and paragraph 5.5 of the Vetting Code of Practice 2023 makes the Vetting Authorised Professional Practice the national standard for police vetting.
Paragraph 5.17 of the Vetting Code of Practice 2023 says that people who are given police information in the course of their duties, and do not access or search police systems themselves, are not required to be police vetted. Paragraph 5.16 of the Vetting Code of Practice 2023 says the level required is related to identified risks.
the College of Policing's Vetting Authorised Professional Practice (May 2025)
The College of Policing
The national standard for police vetting. It sets out the vetting levels for people who are not police staff and the criteria a police force applies to each of them.
Paragraph 5.6.7 of the Vetting Authorised Professional Practice requires each police force to assess the level for each non-police role case by case, and Section 5.8 of the Vetting Authorised Professional Practice prescribes no level for council CCTV staff. Every paragraph number quoted in the five tests or in the letter names the document it comes from.
the Home Office Airwave Service Code of Practice (version 7.0, March 2025)
The Home Office
The code of practice for using the Airwave radio network.
Paragraph 7.1 of the Airwave Service Code of Practice sets the Baseline Personnel Security Standard, or BPSS, as the minimum for people who manage, handle or use an Airwave radio. The Home Office has confirmed that any level above it is a decision for the individual police force.
the Framework Service Level Agreement (Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, revised April 2026)
The Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, with the National Police Chiefs' Council, the Public CCTV Managers Association and the Local Government Association
Guidance for councils and police forces drafting a service level agreement under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Section 4 of the Framework Service Level Agreement describes a nationally agreed minimum standard of NPPV Level 2 Abbreviated without naming any agreement, body or date, and no earlier edition named a level.
The toolkit does not treat it as a vetting instrument. Where a police force relies on it, the letter asks the police force to identify the agreement it refers to.
the CCTV User Group's Airwave Vetting Protocol
The CCTV User Group
The User Group's own guidance on how to answer a police vetting demand. You do not need to have read it.
It supplies the five questions this toolkit asks of any demand, and the evidence checklist at its Annex B.