§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether information about the forenames, surnames and schools attended in regard to civil servants is to be made available to the Fair Employment Agency.
§ Mr. RossiIt is proposed to provide the Fair Employment Agency with lists showing the names and forenames of all non-industrial civil servants, their ranks, the schools they have attended, where these are recorded, whether they were born outside Northern Ireland and whether they became civil servants as a result of local government reorganisation.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary or State for Northern Ireland whether the information front civil servants' personal files that is to be made available to the Fair Employment Agency will include any details of service in the forces or the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Ulster Defence Regiment or police reserve or Territorial Army.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the application form completed by applicants for appointment to the Northern Ireland Civil Service contains any question with regard to the applicant's religion, or any other questions which could give rise to a supposition that he or she was of a particular religious persuasion.
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§ Mr. RossiNo. There is no question on the application form designed to elicit the religious persuasion of the applicant.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the consent of the individual civil servant is sought before information on a personal file is revealed to any person or body not concerned with personnel management, in circumstances where a court of law has not ruled that the contents should be revealed; and what those circumstances would have to be.
§ Mr. RossiInformation recorded on a civil servant's personal file is not normally made available without the civil servant's consent to any person not directly concerned with personnel management. Exceptions to this rule are where a court has ordered the information to be revealed or where there is a statutory obligation to disclose it.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he will set out in the Official Report the names of the staff representatives on the joint advisory group, which has been set up to assist the Fair Employment Agency in its investigation of the religious corn-position of the Northern Ireland Civil Service; and if they were chosen on the basis of their religious persuasion.
§ Mr. RossiThe staff representatives on the joint advisory group assisting the Fair Employment Agency in its investigation of the Northern Ireland Civil Service are Mr. James McCusker and Mr. Sidney McDowell, the general secretary and the deputy general secretary respectively of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance. I understand that they have been chosen by the staff side of the Northern Ireland Central Whitley Council to represent staff interests.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he can make arrangements to ensure that the personal files or other papers of individual civil servants, who have been attacked or whose homes or families have been attacked by Irish Republican Army terrorists, will not be made available in whole or in part to the Fair Employment Agency and that no extract or abstract thereof will be made available.
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§ Mr. RossiIt is not proposed to provide the Fair Employment Agency with access to the personal files of any civil servants.