To wonder what 'Security Clearance' actually involves?

[ArsenicSoup]

Do they rifle through your bins?

Who is it? When our family worked for the Government many years ago they questioned our neighbours.

Depends what level. Basic SC a long form asking about you, your past, your family etc. I think higher levels include home visits/interviews and take a long time to complete.

Rubber gloves!

I'm sure they can do a basic check quite quickly on the internet these days. Hope you've tidied your facebook.

Security clearance for a civil service job fairly innocuous buy annoying - make sure you know parents' dates and towns of birth and all the places you've lived for about 10 years. That's about as intrusive as it gets. Higher levels more details! If it's not civil service, it could involve anything at all!!

A friend had a very thorough background search for post she applied for.

They wanted to know her life story, investigated her family, basically they needed to know about any skeletons in cupboards that might be used to blackmail her.

DH had to have a much higher level clearance for his industry than I did working for an MP! The main question I remember from the form I filled in (pre-9/11) was "Have your parents ever been involved in an act of terrorism?". Friends and colleagues of DH were interviewed for his.

Developed Vetting is the one where they check out your relatives and ring up your friends to ask intrusive questions about your sex life.

Security Clearance is just criminal records, bank accounts etc I think.

XH told me to expect a visit from the spooks for his and asked me to look surprised
They sadly didn't turn up which was a shame as I wouldn't have pretended to be at all surprised.
I think there may have been far bigger hurdles than an XW in his way.

When I graduated, I accepted a job offer (I failed the final medical btw) which needed a very high security clearance. The questions they asked me and my referees (one my age, one who had to have known me a long time iirc) were very, very intrusive.

Rubber gloves!

I was asked in great detail about relatives I hadn't seen in years. They fixated on one person who had died a few years previously. I had to provide information about his death and where he had been buried.

Yes, it's civil service. Not very senior.

It's not about seniority, it's about the role you would do and the info you would access. What level is the clearance?

No idea, just 'security clearance' so far...

No big deal then. I still had to phone my parents up to check some details despite having done it 3 times previously (and you'd think I'd know where they were born by now...). But it's really not that bad

Not farms and fisheries though.

My friend went for a job involving high security clearance many moons ago. When she went to interview they already knew everything about her. They even knew who her boyfriend was (even her parents didn't know that yet) and where she'd gone out for dinner the night before. It freaked her out so much that she turned down the job.

What a relief, I was getting nervous.

I'm not surprised hedgehogs. Several of things on this thread would make me think twice.

IIRC, there was a form to be completed, mostly about proving who you and your parents were. Much longer for British nationals born elsewhere or with foreign parents.

Do you know if it's CTC, SC or DV? There are different levels of clearance depending on the kind of material you might be seeing in the job. Is the policy area one where you might expect to be seeing secret documents on a regular basis? If not, it'll probably be CTC or SC which are pretty straight forward - no bin rifling!

Aa Irene said Developed Vetting is the serious one and takes around 6 months IIRC. Its normally clear on the job spec if DV is required, if it just says security clearance it won't be that serious I imagine they don't want to waste time interviewing people who are not willing to go through that level of intrusion for the job. After all if you can't handle it in a safe situation you're gonna sing like a bird when kidnapped .

I think the vetting is quite wide, ranging from family with political sympathies, to if you've any addictions / secrets that could be used as leverage against you to disclose information.

Re Hedgehogs friend being followed - that makes sense, they want to know what you do / who is in your social sphere and that what you tell them matches to the truth.

Has been a while since I had DV level clearance but the thing I can remember is that they were very strict with regard to personal finance - ie, no high levels of debt allowed.