Security Vetting

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord. He is right. When you see the multiple opportunities to inform the Prime Minister or the Foreign Secretary that the recommendation from UKSV was that the vetting would not be granted, it is extraordinary that it was not passed on to Ministers. The reason for the Statement today is that the Prime Minister said he wanted, as soon as he had more information, to present it to the House at the earliest opportunity, and he has done that.

I understand that Olly Robbins is giving evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee tomorrow and there will be information available after that. I do not want to paraphrase—like the noble Lord, I am looking at the papers and reading it—but I think he thought he was doing the right thing. I have concerns that his interpretation of the law may not have been right, because it seems extraordinary that he could withhold information of this seriousness from Ministers.

The very reason and the purpose for such a process of vetting is that those making the decisions have the information they need on which to make those decisions, and if they are not given that information, I think most people will just find it extraordinary. There would be, I think, a natural assumption that when you go through this process, those who are making the decisions have access and information provided to them. If any red flags were raised by the vetting process, they should have been provided to Ministers. But there will be the opportunity; there is a Select Committee tomorrow, and we may hear more about this.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, the humble Address that Parliament passed gave the Intelligence and Security Committee, which I chair, the responsibility to consider those documents that, if released, would affect national security or international relations. This February, we asked the Cabinet Office to prioritise all the documentation relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States. When we received that information, there was no documentation concerning his vetting. We raised this with the Cabinet Office, only to be told that it did not exist. Last Thursday, the Guardian indicated that the document did exist. We have now received it and will consider it this week at one of our meetings. Now we have the vetting documentation to consider, but I have asked the Cabinet Office about the decision-making process in the Foreign Office to reject the recommendation in the vetting of Peter Mandelson. Again, the Cabinet Office has told me that nothing exists. If it does exist, could my noble friend somehow expedite that information and ensure that it gets to the ISC as quickly as possible?

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend and his committee for their work on this. He underlines our concerns; the humble Address was very clear that all information should be provided. In terms of information that is missing or was not available at the time—the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, made this point, and I apologise for not answering it before—the Prime Minister has made an absolute commitment that all available information should be made public under the humble Address. National security information will be referred to the committee and anything that the police consider could be essential for a prosecution, and, if disclosed, would damage a potential one, may be delayed. The Foreign Office has gone back to the FCDO and is very keen to get all available information. It may be that some documents that were not available in the first tranche should be available in the second tranche or later. I think it is clear to everybody—the Prime Minister was extremely clear on this today—that all information should be available and the humble Address should be complied with in full.