To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions applications for employment in (a) the Home Office, (b) the Metropolitan Police, (c) MI5 and (d) MI6 have not passed vetting procedures due to (i) suspected al-Qaida sympathies and (ii) other suspected extremist views in each year since 1997. (318338)

The Home Office does not hold a central record of the number of applications for employment that have not passed beyond vetting procedures and it would be of disproportionate cost to assemble such a record.

The Metropolitan Police is responsible for its own vetting, I understand that the Metropolitan Police do not hold a central record and that it would be of disproportionate cost to assemble such a record.

In relation to the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the policy of successive Governments is not to answer questions of detail about them.