The Prime Minister updated Cabinet on the statement he had made
to Parliament yesterday on security vetting, including the fact
that a decision had been taken not to inform him, the former
Foreign Secretary, current Foreign Secretary, the former Cabinet
Secretary or any minister that UK Security Vetting had
recommended denying developed vetting to Peter . He said there had been multiple
opportunities where this information could and should have been
shared including at the time of appointment, his sacking, during
the Cabinet Secretary's review of the appointment process, and
when the Foreign Secretary and the former FCDO Permanent
Under-Secretary wrote to Parliament. He added that he understands
that the vetting process is exhaustive and very personal, and the
confidentiality of that information must be protected, but not
the overall recommendation of UKSV to deny clearance.
The Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister
updated Cabinet on the changes they have announced.
First, strengthening the due diligence and security vetting
processes for politically appointed Heads of Mission. This
includes introducing individual due diligence-specific interviews
with proposed candidates. Second, that security vetting should
occur before appointments are announced. And third, the review
into the vetting process led by Sir Adrian Fulford which, while
it initially was announced at a time the Prime Minister
understood UKSV had recommended clearance and therefore the Prime
Minister was concerned the vetting process had failed, will
continue and look at wider issues including how often departments
including FCDO have used the right to ignore the recommendations
of UKSV.
The Prime Minister concluded by saying that Sir made an error of judgement,
but that he is a man of integrity and professionalism. He said it
is wrong that the current Cabinet Secretary and Permanent
Secretary at the Cabinet Office have been attacked despite doing
exactly the right thing in sharing the information with the Prime
Minister once they had gone through the correct process to do so.
He said that there are thousands of hard-working civil servants
across the country who are full of integrity, doing excellent
work every day with a profound sense of public duty.
