Sergei and Yulia Skripal are still living in the UK, have contact with friends and may even have been given work by the security services, experts believe.

From the moment they were released from Salisbury District Hospital in April the pair disappeared, becoming invisible not only to the public but to friends and family too, with the careful help of a London-based MI5 team responsible for the security service’s secretive resettlement programme.

Well-placed sources have now revealed that far from living in isolation in a far flung country, as many believe, the Skripals likely remain in southern England, under the continuing treatment of the close circle of medical experts who have proven to be utterly discreet.

One security source said that they could “easily fix Yulia up with a job,” providing her with her own income and reintegration into society while at the same time, ensuring she remains in a protected, contained environment in which discretion is guaranteed. Her native command of Russian could also prove useful.

Far from being cut off entirely from her former life, Yulia has remained in touch with certain close friends who refuse to divulge a shred of information about her. A few, both British and Russian, are understood to have visited her in the summer.