§ Q24. Mr. Beithasked the Prime Minister whether she assumed a 100 per cent. level of accuracy for polygraph tests when she stated in reply to the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett) on 1 December that no loyal civil servant had anything to fear from a polygraph test; and on what research findings she based her assumption.
§ The Prime MinisterNo. I have not attempted to prejudge the outcome of the pilot scheme which is designed to test the feasibility of polygraph examinations in security screening in this country. As I said in my statement on 12 May 1983, the Government accept the commission's recommendation that a supposedly adverse polygraph indication should in no case be treated by itself as a ground for withholding security clearance without independent confirmation from some other source.