§ 38. Mr. John Fraserasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what circumstances personal information in the possession of other Government Departments is supplied to his Department.
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§ Mr. CarrThe main circumstances in which information from other Departments is supplied to the Home Office are as follows:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. It receives information about immigrants from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, from the DHSS and, with the taxpayer's prior consent, from the Inland Revenue. The information obtained may be about persons seeking entry to this country—for example on arrival at a port or on application being made overseas for an entry clearance—or about persons already in this country if there is suspicion of illegal entry or presence here.
4. 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.
Additionally, information is sought from other Departments to identify drug addicts; to verify that an applicant for training as a probation officer is not known to have committed misconduct of a kind to render him unsuitable for appointment; and to assist in tracing the whereabouts of maintenance defaulters, where this is requested by a foreign Government with which the United Kingdom has a reciprocal enforcement agreement.