Developed Vetting and Enhanced DV

[NotOnPurpose]

I recently had to supply information dating back over 30 years when a family member changed jobs within the civil service. I’m curious to know as much as anyone with these security clearances can tell me about their roles. Are you all spies? If so, don’t ’they’ already know these things at work? Why does it matter where your relatives have lived?

Mostly what they look for in your background is if someone is ever going to have leverage over you.

i had to do DV when I worked for an engineering firm, I could tell you what type of work it was but then I'd have to kill you

Haha thanks!

As pp says, they are mostly wanting to make sure that you don’t have any risk of being blackmailed or things like that

I had to do mine last year and it did feel quite intrusive, some of the questions I had no idea how they would have expected me to remember them!

Work in a prison. You need higher level vetting for higher category prisons.

You never know what they know already, so don't get caught lying.

They are surprisingly unconcerned with low level criminality as well, although I imagine that depends on the type of crime and pattern of behaviour

There are plenty of roles that require DV clearance that aren't espionage. For example, counter-espionage! 😉 Also, jobs where you are provided with access to certain categories of information (defence and weapons systems) or details of and/or ability to compromise security arrangements for particular sites such as prisons, defence or nuclear (military or civil) or sensitive research labs.

The vetting officers care what your relatives do because there is a risk that people will reveal information to close family, whether they mean to or not. Or that family members might be able to access information if you took work home. This would likely be against your employer's rules, but it could happen. If your brother is an investigative journalist or your wife is a prominent anti-whatever campaigner, or you father-in-law is an organised crime kingpin, this is more of an issue than if they work in HR or as an English teacher.

They also want to speak to people who know you well so they can suss out whether you are a security risk. For example, do you have a lot of skeletons in your closet which could put you at risk of being blackmailed?

An incredibly thorough background check of that person, their family and associated families potentially is done to assess any weakness or leverage points a hostile agency could use in blackmail- could be financial, criminal etc.

Thanks for all the replies, getting a clearer idea now. It’s not me being vetted but a sibling who has a vague sounding civil service job and I was surprised to have to answer questions about where I was living in the early 90s, I thought it was some sort of scam until my sibling told me it was about their change of role.

Most people working on sensitive sites ime only have SC and are escorted.

Some people working for that company might be put through DV so they can work without escort.

DV is really really expensive and seems to be ime limited to departments, so you could have DV to work in some govt/military/nuclear site but you can't transfer it to another site or department without going through it again. My experience is a while ago though so I don't know if it's the same still

I had a Civil Service finance job in London but was dealing with overseas embassies and consulates. DV was required to ensure I wasn't in a position to be bribed.

DH needed it because he worked with people that needed it, not because his job personally needed it.

I had a family member who worked for HMRC and there was a department who dealt with the taxation of high profile individuals like the royal family who had to have much higher clearance than normal, I assume because the information would be valuable.

DH has enhanced vetting, not sure if it's developed enhanced vetting or not. He works in air traffic control, he's not a spy. But there are some businesses and operations which are central to the way the country runs, and the people running those operations need to be checked out to make sure they're not spending their weekends with the taliban, or that their sister isn't the local organised crime boss.

They are interested in people who have spent considerable periods outside the UK - where were they and what were they doing? Fine if you were at Uni in Western Europe, not so fine if you were a mercenary in Iraq. That's why they want to know what close family members were up to.

They’re looking for whether your sibling might be susceptible to blackmail, bribery or other loss of sensitive information.

If you as a close family member had previously been living in a hostile state you might already have relationships or connections which could make your sibling vulnerable.

a family member had to go through this, they were not a spy just a software developer. There’s a whole host of reasons that aren’t spies, sensitive tech, sensitive financial info etc, they basically want to know family background to check you’re not going to blackmail them/put them up to stuff.

Thanks for all the responses, it’s fascinating.

I used to recruit IT engineers and the roles at the Cabinet Office and AWE (Aldermaston Weapons Institute) both needed DV level clearance I think. As others have said it is all about making sure you aren't an obvious security risk yourself or an easy target for blackmail.

AWE is Atomic Weapons Establishment

Working in the nuclear industry ( power ) often requires this due to the risk of corruption bribery etc and terrorisim

It's all about honesty and transparency. So the bad guys can't blackmail you to gain an advantage.

You could be convicted of a crime, have debts and a weird sexual predilection..but as long as you admit it all you are likely to pass vetting . !

No my ex has DV clearance, definitely not a spy, he’s a diplomat

I looked in a job that required DV once (at gchq), the process seemed quite intense and the pay was not particularly good considering the responsibility.

In the end I decided it was not worth while, but I think for some people security cleared jobs can work out as there is less compensation/ more job security once you are cleared.