Ambassadors: Vetting Process

Lord Pack Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Pack]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the vetting process for ambassadors is sufficiently robust.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)]

My Lords, ambassadorial appointments go through an extensive process, which includes national security vetting. This is a robust process to which thousands of civil servants are subject each year. As noble Lords would expect, it is none the less kept under continual review to ensure that it remains fit for purpose and addresses any shortcomings. That is why yesterday we announced that direct ministerial appointments for senior ambassadorial roles must now pass security vetting before they are confirmed or announced.

[Lord Pack (LD)]

I thank the Minister for that Answer. The other part of the process is the due diligence process that the Cabinet Office undertook for the ambassador to the US. How many other appointments have the Government made following the same or a substantially similar process as was used for the ambassador to the US? Do the Government have confidence that the outcome of the process was correct in all those other cases, given the problems we are now aware of with how the process worked in the case of the ambassador?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I have no reason to believe that there are any other such issues— I think we can all accept that this was an exceptional situation—but that does not mean we should not review our processes and make sure that any changes that ought to be made are made. As the noble Lord suggests, this may not be the only occasion on which this kind of incident happens. We want to make sure that these processes are as strong as possible.