§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans there are to establish(a) a central computerised databank for Europol and (b) a data protection authority to monitor the use and collation of data by Europol.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe Europol drugs unit will be the first element of Europol to be established and work is in hand to identify both the data requirements of the unit and any necessary equipment for the storage of data. The need for data protection is recognised and consideration is currently being given to the establishment of a data protection regime for the unit acceptable to the participating member states and capable of expansion to cover all aspects of Europol as the organisation develops.
§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if data held by Europol will be subject to the Council of Europe's recommendation R (87) 15 of 17 September 1987 relating to the use of personal data in the police sector.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe data protection regime for Europol is currently under consideration. The United Kingdom is fully involved in this work. We shall seek to ensure that the procedures adopted are consistent with the Data Protection Act 1984 and recommendation (87)15, subject only to the United Kingdom's reserves on articles 2.2 and 2.4 of that recommendation.