§ LORD GARDINERMy 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 whether, apart from personal information obtained in confidence from immigrants, which is given by the Department of Health and Social Security to the Home Office, other Government Departments give to the Home Office or the police personal information obtained in confidence; and, if so, to which Departments and what is the nature of the personal information.
VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSSMy Lords, I am afraid that this Question deserves rather a long Answer, and I hope I may be forgiven for that. If the first statement in the noble Lord's Question is intended to refer to information which may be obtained from scrutiny of a passport by an official of the Department of Health and Social Security and subsequently passed to the Home Office, the Government do not accept that this is information obtained in confidence. It is not usual for the Home Office to receive any personal information from other Departments which has been obtained in confidence.
The following are the main situations in which the Home Office receives personal information from other Government Departments. First, the Home Office receives information about prisoners transferred to its care from the Scottish Home and Health Department, from the Ministry of Defence (following court-martial) or from the Department of Health and Social Security (when patients are returned to prison from special hospitals). Secondly, it receives information from the Department of Health and Social Security about offenders who are detained in institutions for which that Department is responsible (for example, to enable consideration to be given to their release). Thirdly, it receives information of the type usually required by an employer whenever a member or ex-member of the staff of another Department is being considered for employment in the Home Office.
2064 There is no regular passing on of information obtained in confidence from individuals by Government Departments to the police.
§ LORD GARDINERMy Lords. I am grateful to the noble Lord for that very full Answer.
§ LORD ROYLEMy Lords, would the noble Viscount be kind enough to tell me whether the Government have got anything on me?
VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSSMy Lords, the trouble is that we have not got any sort of central records, and therefore the noble Lord does not appear in them.
§ LORD AVEBURYMy Lords, may I ask for how long it has been the procedure in offices of the Department of Health and Social Security to ask black people for their passports? Further, is the noble Viscount aware that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Security wrote to me before the Statement was made in another place, stating that this procedure was already in operation? Under what authority or Act of Parliament have officials of the Department of Health and Social Security power to demand of any person that he should produce his passport in applying for a social security card? How are the Government going to prevent local officers of the Department of Health and Social Security demanding a passport from any person whose face is not pink and whom they have no reason to suspect of not having come here perfectly legally?
VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSSMy Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, is on a false premise. This does not apply only to people whose faces are black: it applies on all occasions when information is required from anybody who goes for the first time to ask for an insurance card. The practice is to ask for different sorts of documents according to the kind of person with whom you are dealing, but the authority is not statutory. It is done in order primarily to complete the records which the Department of Health and Social Security need. There is a form that has to be filled in by applicants, including details of identity and other personal details. Among the documents which may have to be produced as proof of identity is a person's passport.