HL Deb 19 July 1973 vol 344 cc1372-3

3.28 p.m.

LORD GARDINER

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why, having regard to the fact that neither the Terms of Reference nor the Report of the Committee on Privacy were confined to personal information stores held in computers, the Government Report and the White Paper referred to by the Minister of State in this House on June 6, 1973, are to be confined to personal information stores held in Government computers.

THE MINISTER OF STATE, HOME OFFICE (VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS)

My Lords, the White Paper will not be confined to personal information stores held in Government computers. It will cover the Younger Committee's findings as well as those of the review by officials of the privacy of personal information held on Government computers.

LORD GARDINER

My Lords, while thanking the noble Viscount for that Answer, may I ask, as I am not clear about this, whether that means that it will or will not cover personal information held in Government stores which are not computerised?

VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS

My Lords, there is a fairly long passage in the speech of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary which he made in the course of the sister debate to the one we had in this House, and if the noble and learned Lord will look at the OFFICIAL REPORT of another place of Friday, June 13 (columns 1968 and 1969), he will find the scope of the White Paper fairly fully described there. It was nothing like so constricted as I may, by mistake, have conveyed in our debate.

LORD GARDINER

My Lords, Friday the 13th seems a suitable date, and I will read it with interest.