The snowballing ‘phone hacking' scandal this week cast its shadow over Whitehall's recruitment procedures, after former senior civil servants questioned the quality of background checks on ex-Number 10 communications director, Andy Coulson.

Following revelations by prime minister, David Cameron, last week, that Mr Coulson was never given top-level security clearance in government, thereby not requiring the most detailed checks into his past, several former senior civil servants expressed their surprise to The MJ.