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Departmental Manpower

Volume 494: debated on Monday 15 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) vetting and (b) security checks are undertaken in respect of staff working at the Abu Dhabi hub (i) prior to and (ii) during employment at the hub. (272748)

All entry clearance managers, entry clearance officers and other UK based staff are subjected to vetting before undertaking employment at the Abu Dhabi hub, this includes security checks.

Some locally employed staff of certain nationalities (British, EU and Australian) are vetted if they are working in sensitive (non decision making) areas of our business (e.g. visa embossing). All locally employed staff are subject to local police and reference checks. Integrity and business assurance checks (including audits of IT access and usage) are carried out by the Integrity Manager based in Abu Dhabi.