430 • POSITIVE VETTING
curity apparatus, PIDE, was closely associated with the Axis. As well
as tolerating large-scale German espionage in Lisbon, the Portuguese
embassy in London harbored several spies, one of whom,Rogeirio
de Menezes, was sentenced to death for espionage.POSITIVE VETTING (PV).Introduced in 1950,positive vettingis a
procedure intended to check the backgrounds of personnel with ac-
cess to secret, top secret, and atomic information, The three-part sys-
tem requires the completion by the candidate for clearance of a long
security questionnaire, which is checked againstMI5’s own indices
and the files held by the Criminal Records Office; the nomination of
referees; and finally field inquiries and an interview conducted by an
investigating officer.
Positive vetting’s objective is not to identify spies but to check the
information supplied by candidates against data already held. Since
its introduction, various improvements have been made, anden-
hanced positive vetting, requiring financial checks and more referees,
has been mandatory at regular intervals for all intelligence personnel
following the recommendations of theSecurity Commission, which
investigated theMichael Bettaneycase in 1983. In addition, a fur-
ther level termeddeveloped security vettinghas been introduced to
clear midlevel intelligence personnel.
The government’s reluctant decision to impose positive vetting
followed a recommendation from a Cabinet committee, GEN 183,
chaired by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in April 1950, following
two reviews undertaken in 1947 and 1948 by a working party chaired
by a Home Office official, Joseph Baker. The Positive Vetting Com-
mittee was chaired by John Winnifrith from the Treasury and in-
cludedRoger HollisandGraham Mitchellfrom MI5, who had both
participated in the recent investigation of Klaus Fuchs and had been
indoctrinated intovenona.
POST, KENNETH.Educated at Winchester and Magdalen College,
Oxford, Kenneth Post joined the Stock Exchange in 1929 but eight
years later was commissioned in the Royal Artillery as a territorial.
He served in Norway and in 1943 was seconded to the Ministry of
Supply, where he was a member of thecrossbowcommittee set up
by the prime minister to assess reports of Hitler’s secret weapons.