HL Deb 04 February 2003 vol 644 cc19-20WA
Lord Tebbit

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether unpublished information concerning United Kingdom nationals and foreigners resident in the United Kingdom collected by or on behalf of the Criminal Records Bureau remains at all times within the legal jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. [HL584]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)

As part of a package of measures introduced to improve the performance of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), manual inputting of personal information (such as name, date of birth and addresses during the past five years) provided by applicants on their application forms has been outsourced. This work is undertaken at the beginning of the process, and no information drawn from police or other data sources is involved. It is being undertaken on the Indian sub-continent—in common with the IT practice of many other organisations. The contractual provisions make it clear that the processing of data must be in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998, and security and other arrangements must be such that they do not involve a material increase to the risk of misuse of data.