Official Secrets Act

[Drago]

I signed an American equivalent that threatened me with all sorts of nastiness. I was importing some military grade equipment (the sort found in missiles), I was under all sorts of threats if we mislaid any of them, which thankfully we did not.

Its all hollow threats. I mean, its not as if they can fire missiles at you that didnt arrive in the first place.

 

[Milkfloat]

Its all hollow threats. I mean, its not as if they can fire missiles at you that didnt arrive in the first place.

I am pretty sure they have a few spares. Those Americans don’t like to give up, I once briefly held some shares in a US company about 20 years ago, managed by another US company. Every year since then I get an official looking letter demanding a tax return for the US, the first year or so I filled it in with a lot of ‘not applicables’ just to make sure I did not get the rubber glove treatment when visiting, but I got bored of that. Now they just get binned. I do still wonder if one day they will stop me at the border. Mind you I probably deserve it. I lived there for a couple of years on a 30 day visa, which meant that every month I either went for a weekend to Mexico or Canada to get a fresh 30 day visa.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Yes - I've signed too. Didn't take very long and my wrist survived the experience. I wonder where that bit of paper is now.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I can neither confirm or deny if I've ever signed it.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Presumably the form is an Official Secret, so how would they know if you'd signed it or not?

 

[craigwend]

I should have signed it in my youth when I worked somewhere where I now understand I shouldn't mention, though myself and another lad started a week later than everyone else and they forgot to ask us. I'm not sure what I know that I shouldn't know, but I know not to share it, whatever it is...

 

[newfhouse]

When I joined the BBC as a trainee broadcast engineer in 1982 I was told very solemnly that everything I would do was covered by the Act.

Which is a shame, really. The stories I could tell otherwise…

 

[PK99]

Ive signed itntwice, once as a young bobby and once as a skipper. I could easily have declined, but I wanted to be part of the operations that necessitated it and they'd have just turfed me off if Id been defiant over that, no matter how hollow it is as the act does not require a signature in order to be valid.

Even without signing, the Act applies. In the context of official secrets the signing is irrelevant.

Lost in the midst of time and jokey memes is the idea that the signing makes obeying the act part of the contract of employment and breaching it a potentially dismissable offence. Without signing there is an Employment Law minefield of "no one told me, so you can't automatically sack me".

Now Positive Vetting (Been done twice*) is a very different Kettle of Very Smelly fish. There are very clear and direct implications in signing the declarations that are part of that.

*Granted a very long time ago - once as a Student before working a summer @Aldermaston and once during my time in the Nuclear Industry some time later @Sellafield or CEGB HQ, can't remember which.