Written question asked by Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 18 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 20 June 2008. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Monday, 30 June 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Departmental Vetting

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what procedures his Department follows for checking the criminal records of employees; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: For those positions in the MOD that require national security vetting, applicants are required to complete a security questionnaire declaring both unspent and spent convictions. The data is checked by the Defence Vetting Agency, which has direct access to the Police National Computer, along with a range of other checks as described in the Prime Minister's statement on vetting on 15 December 1994, Official Report, columns 764-66W.Where it is judged that national security vetting is unnecessary and the level of risk is acceptable, the Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard is applied. This requires recruits to declare unspent convictions against which random checks are carried out. When individuals will be working with children or vulnerable adults, their consent is sought to carry out additional checks through the Defence Vetting Agency with the Criminal Records Bureau.

Secondary information