British government demands Chinese-owned company appoint a security chief with UK clearances

The British government is demanding that a Chinese company hire a chief security officer with U.K. Security Vetting (UKSV) clearance in order to be allowed to acquire a British business that sells scientific instruments.

The instruction was made under the country’s National Security and Investment Act, which allows the government to “scrutinise and intervene in business transactions, such as takeovers, to protect national security” in 17 sensitive areas of the economy.

In a notice issued on Wednesday, the government gave the green light to a pair of transactions that would see the British mass spectrometer company IsotopX move under Chinese ownership.

However the order states that the new owners must “appoint a Chief Security Officer with UK Security Vetting clearance to the IsotopX senior management team, who will have oversight of security requirements relating to data, infrastructure and personnel.”

It does not state whether the individual must have a specific level of clearance, or simply be approved by UKSV — a government department that provides a range of checks for people employed in sensitive roles. Similar orders have been previously issued, including to smoke alarm manufacturer Fire Angel when it was acquired by a Singaporean business.

The IsotopX notice also says the acquisition depends on “certain requirements relating to IT equipment, data storage, access and handling” and calls for “certain protocols concerning visits to the IsotopX site and business travel” to be implemented, although these are not specified in the notice itself.

According to the government, the demands are necessary to mitigate the risk to national security around “intellectual property relating to the manufacture of dual-use products which are subject to export controls, and related services.”

As explained on the IsotopX website, some mass spectrometers are considered dual-use products because they can be used to measure isotopes in enriched uranium for nuclear warheads, as well as for civilian purposes such as “geochronology and other Earth science applications.”

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the need to hire a UKSV-cleared chief security officer.