Ambassadors: Vetting Process

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I experienced the process for many years. Even as a Minister of State you gave references and had views, but ultimately it was a decision taken by the Foreign Secretary and then passed on to the Prime Minister—that process is very much established. I pay tribute to other Permanent Under-Secretaries who sit in your Lordships’ House and from whom I learned the process. Surely the fix here is that any political appointment, irrespective of the Government, is also put through that very same vetting process. That will resolve many of the issues the Government are now facing.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My understanding is that that is the case. I think the only difference here is around the timing of the vetting and the announcing; the actual vetting process was the same. There is now another process about making sure that the documents we all need to see in order to assure ourselves of this are available, because this is a public confidence issue as well. I hope that can be done in good time, and the ISC has taken responsibility for doing that.