§ 26. Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied that individual privacy is not invaded by the operations of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975.
§ Mr. OrmeI take this opportunity to reaffirm our policy that private information obtained by my Department for social security purposes is not divulged without the consent of the person concerned save in exceptional circumstances in which we feel bound to recognise that disclosure is justified. My hon. Friend has expressed concern that my Department may, in certain circumstances, disclose to an employer the age of an employee. As was made clear in our evidence to the Lindop committee on data protection, this is one of the very limited range of circumstances in which information is disclosed; this 605W disclosure is necessary in certain circumstances in order to establish a contracted-out pension scheme's liabilities or in order to enable the employer to comply with his responsibility for the correct payment of national insurance contributions.