Security Clearance

kjglen24

Hi all,

I have started working in a company as a Finance Administrator that does engineering and part of the business (one which I am not involved with at all) is Government Secret.

I have been asked to do a Security Clearance via "National Security Vetting" and have some questions if anyone could help...

1. I have bad credit, I mean not horrific I haven't been bankrupt or got on IVA or anything like that I have some defaults. I know you must think that I work in finance it looks bad, but I have worked in finance for years and years and never done anything wrong

2. It's asking for defaults and CCJ's from the past 10 years, now I had 2x CCJ's but they have been off my account for a long time -- Do I disclose these as they are not on my credit report anymore so I don't know the details?

3. The defaults I have to be fair I haven't been doing much with them as I haven't really had the disposable income to do so.. (this Job pays a lot more so will be able to) will this decline me?

4. Who sees the info I put on the questionnaire? I am a private person in work and even though I am not ashamed I don't tell people I am gay or my father who has deceased got done for drink driving about 15 years ago and didn't work.

5. The pass or fail.. who does it come back to? Me Or HR? Do they get to see why it failed?

Any help is greatly appreciated

agrinnall

Have you read the information available online about NSV?

https://www.gov.uk/security-vetting-and-clearance

I can't really answer your specific questions, but I would strongly recommend that you answer the questionnaire fully and accurately, the consequences of giving a false answer and being found out could be pretty nasty for you. If you don't feel you can do that you'd probably be better off declining to undergo the vetting.

kjglen24

Thanks for your reply; it's not the Vetting people I mind seeing this info and I will be open and honest. I am not just a huge fan of HR seeing all the details as a lot of stuff on that form is extremely personal (things I would not share with HR or anyone usually).

[Deleted User]

HR wont see anything, only NSV. Don't lie or omit anything from the forms - they WILL find out and you could lose your job. Your clearance letter will just say yes or no - if there is an issue NSV will talk to you about it first.


NSV don't generally care what you have in your past, as long as you are honest (there are obviously exceptions such as serious criminal offences).

kjglen24

camelot1971 wrote: »

HR wont see anything, only NSV. Don't lie or omit anything from the forms - they WILL find out and you could lose your job. Your clearance letter will just say yes or no - if there is an issue NSV will talk to you about it first.

That is all I wanted to know... Thank you so much! I won't omit anything as I don't have anything to hide I just didn't want HR seeing all my personal info such as Father's previous problems and mother being married more than once e.t.c

Thanks a lot

kjglen24

Oh sorry what do I do about past CCJ's because I don't know about them anymore? They have long gone off my credit report.

dacouch

I did the basic government security check a few years back for contracting in Whitehall.

I was advised that you must declare everything as they will find out about it.

They're not necessarily worried about financial problems or criminal convictions. They want to look into you and assess whether you fit in with them security wise.

I was advised that if you hide information they worry that you can be targeted by spies as they can blackmail you. If you've declared all your bad things to the government then they have nothing to blackmail you about

bugslet

If you fail, which is unlikely, HR won't know why. We had one of our drivers fail on his third re-vet - never knew why.

From what you have said, I think you will get your clearance, it has to be something fairly major for it to be a disaster.