§ Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will give an assurance that the confidentiality of information held by his Department about any teacher or student is strictly safeguarded; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Edward ShortYes. In cooperation with the educational institutions and authorities concerned, rigorous control is exercised over the selection of each item included in the record, the processes by which the data are transmitted and the way they are used. Information on an individual's politics, religion or character do not form any part of the record system.
The central records of individuals' educational careers are being built up 264W only for the purposes of preparing statistical tabulations in which no individual is separately identified. The object is to improve the statistical information about the working of the educational system and to provide better data for planning its future development. In particular, one aim is to measure the flows of students and teachers from one part of the education system to another, as a result of which it should be possible to provide young people with better information about the alternative educational opportunities open to them.
Information about individuals has also to be kept for administrative purposes, both by institutions and by central and local government departments, in the interests of the individual concerned, for instance the payment of pensions to teachers and of grants to students. Some of this information may, at little extra cost, be used for statistical purposes as input to the central record.
Confidentiality rules are strictly applied to all records of individuals held by the Department. In the case of the records of students in further education establishments, an explicit formula provides that no information about an individual shall be divulged outside except with the express permission of that individual, and within the Department access to such information is confined to the statistical and computer divisions. In the university sector, control over the way in which the data, held by the Universities Central Council on Admissions, are used is exercised by a group representing the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals and other educational interests.