Paul Lewis

By the following month, this security vetting process is underway.

Normally, it's just a formality.

I mean, this is I think this may have been lost in some of the reporting.

This is a level of vetting that some low ranking civil servants have to go through.

Now, what we reported was that vetting process, which is done by an agency called UK Security Vetting, it's a division of the Cabinet Office, vetted Mandelson and it had three options.

So it could either give him clearance.

That was the first.

The second was it could give him clearance with mitigation.

So to mitigate against some of the perceived risk factors.

And the third was to entirely deny him clearance.

And the decision was to deny him clearance, the third, which is a very rare decision for this agency to make.

And then that decision was overruled by officials in the Foreign Office in order for him to take up his post, which he did the following month.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I can talk to you in general terms about what UK security vetting involves.

Yeah.

And this is what's in the public domain.

OK, so, you know, you go through this process, you know, you fill out a questionnaire, you're required to answer questions.

Sometimes very personal questions about your life, your business relationships, your other relationships with other people around the world, people in your personal life.

It can be quite somewhat intrusive, people who have gone through this process say.

But it is highly confidential.