HC Deb 10 June 1997 vol 295 cc381-2W
Ms McDonagh

To ask the President of the Council, pursuant to her oral answer to the right hon. Members for Eddisbury (Mr. Goodlad) and for East Devon (Sir P. Emery) of 5 June,Official Report, columns 549–50, if she will make a further statement on the arrangements for the positive vetting of special advisers. [3053]

Mrs. Ann Taylor

Special advisers are vetted as appropriate to the sensitivity of material they see. In the Prime Minister's Office, Mr. Jonathan Powell may from time to time need to have access to sensitive intelligence material. He has previously been positively vetted and his vetting is now being renewed. Some other special advisers in No. 10 are, as a matter of routine, being positively vetted though it is unlikely that they will have access to sensitive intelligence material.