FiL wants all our data

[HighlandCowSaysBooNotMoo]

My father in law works in a government role.
Today he put a message in the family WhatsApp group asking if we could send him our addresses, d.o.bs, mothers maiden names, our place of birth, our address history, previous maiden names etc.
Apparently he needs this info from his 4 adult children, their spouses (me included) , his own siblings and his siblings spouses, grandchildren, his in laws etc. Basically he is covering every member of the family and spouses etc over the age of 18.
He has put something light hearted about it being needed for an enhanced security check that he's been told he needs for his job.
He is not changing jobs or position in the company. He has been in this job for since my husband was a wee kid!!
A couple of people have responded straight away with their data.
DH says IABU not to share mine with his dad
What do I do?

I'm at the point where I need to hit my head on my desk.

This. Is. Not. How. It. Works. And many many many people have already said that on this thread. It's down to the person being vetted to gather all the information and put it into the form. Partly because they then take responsibility for it and declare at the end that they're being honest and that it's accurate. So if anything turns out not to be, it's on them, and they have to face the music.
There is no facility for them to ask the department to send some kind of proof that it's needed.

The FIL has asked people to provide the information he needs to put on his form, to make sure it's accurate. He's asked them all via the whatsapp group, but there's no indication that he wants them to send the info that way.

People who have experience of having had Enhanced DV explaining this is normal

99% of the oysters on this thread are talking shite.

DV does not require details of your adult children, their partners/spouses nor their grandchildren. See attached from the actual guidance.

I have no idea why the OPs FIL has asked for her details but it certainly isn't required for DV.

There’s DV and then there’s also enhanced DV. They can also come back and request further information in addition to what they ask on the forms.

You fill in the same form for DV and EDV.

EDV just involves additional checks on the applicant.

It's literally all listed on the .gov website.

(I also deal with this for a living but hey, what do I know)

As millions of other posters have said, this is super common for developed vetting roles. Yes things like MOD and higher level civil service jobs, also things like working in a nuclear power plant or air traffic control.

It will blow some people's minds but - any genealogist, even with fairly basic knowledge, can find out your mother's maiden name free of charge in about 30 seconds.

I had a temp job the summer I left school at Edinburgh Castle. I had to complete a form with all of my details, all of my parents details, my sister's details. Because it was an Army base at the time, the IRA were still active, and they wanted to check out the background of everyone with access.

Well in this day and age that is not acceptable, it's not hard to have a secure electronic system to request and store valuable information like all your personal details. So to say but that is the way it is is really not good enough.

This is standard procedure for certain positions even if they don’t appear high security to you. No the employer initially wont do they donkey work, why should they? The employee has to disclose details of certain family members. And it is unlikely that the employee can get hold of the data internally himself. Unless you have serious issues with your father in law, you would be very rude/unkind/inconsiderate to refuse. What do you have to loose? Unless, as I say, you don’t trust your father in law.

This is standard procedure for certain positions even if they don’t appear high security to you. No the employer initially wont do they donkey work, why should they? The employee has to disclose details of certain family members. And it is unlikely that the employee can get hold of the data internally himself. Unless you have serious issues with your father in law, you would be very rude/unkind/inconsiderate to refuse. What do you have to loose? Unless, as I say, you don’t trust your father in law.

I can only relay what information I had to provide, and I was definitely asked about wider family, and friends, I didn’t live with.*🤷🏻‍♀️

Covered in these parts:

“Requests for further information: Occasionally, we may need to contact you by telephone, email or post to clarify information provided to us or request further information relevant to your circumstances. If you have provided more than one email address in your application, make sure you check each account regularly so that you can respond to any requests in a timely manner. If you do not respond to a request for further information your application may be cancelled.“

“A routine eSC, DV or eDV interview will cover all aspects of your life. At the interview, the vetting officer will build as complete a picture of you as possible. The purpose of this is so we can make an informed assessment that you will be able to cope with access to sensitive information or assets at the highest levels and will not become a security risk and a threat to national security.
Key themes include:

• your loyalty, honesty and reliability, and identifying any vulnerabilities that could lead you to being bribed or blackmailed
• your wider family background (relationships and influences)
• past experiences of drug taking (if any)
• financial affairs
• general political views
• foreign travel
• hobbies.

If you are asked to attend an interview in relation to a CTC, Level 1B or SC application, the interview will usually cover a specific area of your life, but may extend to include questions asked in a full DVinterview.”

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/united-kingdom-security-vetting-applicant

*I’m foreign to the US and UK, with foreign family and friends, which I know had significant impact.

He’s a spook.

I think you maybe missing the point of some MNs remarks.
Whilst they may understand that a FIL needs their personal information not everyone would necessarily want to part with all of that information.
They have that right.
Any caring FIL would understand this.

We had to provide all that and every address ever lived at and every school attended when our youngest adopted our grandson. That was for a very good cause and I had no probs supplying it (Also my other daughter and her husband had to provide same info)

Not sure government departments have that amount of human resource to be emailing an employees family & friends. It’s actually the person being vetted that is responsible for collecting the necessary data & passing it on

And if you'd read my messages, earlier I said she can refuse, and FIL will have to explain this on the form - but the data will still be found. All she will be doing is delaying and causing issues for a beloved FIL. And as many others have explained, just because she doesn't know he is moving roles or projects doesn't mean he isn't. If you care for FIL as she says, it's ridiculous to withhold the information from him.

Yes I have read all the posts.
If the information can be found, it can be found. However if handing it over is going to stress out the OP, ( or anyone else on here) then it’s up to them to deal with that.
As I said a caring FIL would understand this.
That level of understanding works both ways.

My husband has just had to do this to work on a goverment site. He even had to disclose details of our sex life, (if we are swingers for example) and passed relationships, while it's invasive its quite important for national security reasons.

OMFG!!!!

It’s probably been mentioned by someone else and it’s a long thread now, but very common for sensitive roles. I work in Intelligence for the police and vetted to a standard that I have to declare all family members, close associations, household members etc. we also declare all our finances, right down to store card balances as we are open to bribery due to the level of information we know.

Oh good god. Ditto, It does not matter if that is how it works, I have the right to have the opinion that it not an appropriate way to collect personal data from a private individual, just because that is the way it is done does not make it right in 2023. Time to update the process to this century.

There's very little point in telling us, some of us think it is fine, let United Kingdom Security Vetting know,
Their contact details are here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/united-kingdom-security-vetting-contact-us

Do come back and let us know how you got on.... If I ever have to apply for or renew a clearance I'll look forward to a significantly different process from now on

Good grief, it is a free world, and I can have an opinion which is logical and a commonsense opinion. And you are entitled to your opinion too so we agree to disagree.

You said it was time to update the process, and earlier that is was not good enough. Nobody here has that power to update the system, but UKSV do, so I've helped you by providing you the details. I bet they are jolly helpful if you contact them

It will be great to hear how you get on....

Why would island girl bother to contact them to sort out a problem that isn’t hers.
As you say no one here has the power to update the system and I’m guessing no one is that invested, at the moment, to want or need to. Including Islandgirl who just gave her views, as is her right.

Therefore asking her to carry out a random task Is irrelevant, except for one up man ship.

I’ve held enhanced security clearance for many many years. They’re standard questions for any security check, and no, they don’t necessarily come to you direct. This is nothing new, either your relative started work in a more covert capacity (which they’re not going to tell anyone about) otitspzrt of the national review of security clearances.