§ 2.46 p.m.
§ Lord GARDINERMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what has happened to the promised White Paper on the safeguards to the public which are desirable in relation to personal information stores held in Government computers.
§ The MINISTER of STATE, HOME OFFICE (Lord Harris of Greenwich)My Lords, this is an important but complicated subject, and the preparation of the White Paper for publication has drawn attention to the need to re-examine certain aspects of it. We are pressing ahead with this, and I hope that it will not now be long before the Paper is issued.
§ Lord GARDINERMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that Answer, may I ask whether I am right in thinking that it was in July 1972 that Mr. Maudling announced that he had received the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the rules governing personal information on Government computers; that it was in July 1973 that Mr. Carr said that the White Paper would deal with the matter and would be published that year, 1973, and that it was in July 1974 that my noble friend said that the Government regarded 306 this as a matter of urgency and that the White Paper would be published quite soon? In these circumstances, is the House not entitled to know when it really is to be published?
§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICHMy Lords, my noble and learned friend, as is customary with him, is particularly charitable, because he could have added that on 31st October I said that we would do our best to publish it by Christmas. As my noble and learned friend recognises, this is an extremely complex matter. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has, as I think my noble and learned friend will be aware, appointed Mr. Paul Sieghart to assist him in this matter, and we are pressing ahead with it. However, the issues involved are exceedingly complicated.
§ Lord AVEBURYMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that public concern has been expressed about the exchange of information between the vehicle and driving licences computer in Swansea, the police national computer, and now the computer belonging to the Customs and Excise? Am I not right in thinking that it was always the rule in the past that information collected for one purpose by a Government Department could not then be used by another Government Department for some different purpose? In view of these departures from that rule, which may be perfectly justifiable taken in isolation, could the noble Lord say what is now the limit beyond which information cannot be passed from one Department to another?
§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH:My Lords, this is one of the issues which will be covered by the White Paper.