Hotels on Whitehall put the Queen at risk, peers warn

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The use of buildings on Whitehall as hotels poses a security risk to state occasions, peers have claimed.

Admiralty Arch and the Old War Office have both been approved for conversion into hotels since they were sold by government departments.

Former Labour home secretary Lord Reid said it could "put our national security - not to mention our monarch - at risk".

But the government insisted current arrangements were "appropriate".

The issue was raised by Lib Dem Lord Wallace of Saltaire, who was, until the election, a spokesman for the Cabinet Office.

He pointed out that "the IRA, from within the area of Whitehall, managed to mortar No. 10" and asked whether the security services would vet all the staff of the hotels on that road.

Lord Lisvane - until recently the clerk of the House of Commons - said it was "extremely important" that a full formal security assessment was carried out for each building.

'Siren voices'

Alluding to a recent heist in London, he added: "I also ask him to ignore the siren voices which suggest that security can be assured simply by sealing tunnels. It cannot; ask anybody in Hatton Garden."

Labour's spokesman, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, suggested a select committee should investigate the matter.

But the Cabinet Office minister, Lord Bridges of Headingley, told peers that the freeholds were still owned by the government, overseen by the security and intelligence services and the Metropolitan Police.

The minister went on to divulge that the government had not insisted on security clearances for each member of hotel staff, but added: "It is obviously in the hoteliers' interests to take their security checks on their staff into consideration".

He told peers the government had generated £1.4bn in land and building sales since 2010.