§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many disclosures of names and addresses took place from the television licensing computer system in 1985; for what purpose those disclosures took place; and which organisations received those names and addresses.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe general principle governing the computer and other records of the National TV Licence Records Office is that personal information (including 577W names and addresses) is not disclosed to third parties. There are, however, various circumstances concerning the effective administration of the licensing system in which the disclosure of such information may take place, including: (a) disclosure to the courts (and in Scotland the prosecuting authorities) for the purposes of a prosecution for licence evasion; (b) to a financial institution or a person's estate in connection with arrangements for the payment or refund of his licence fee; and (c) for the purposes of approved research. I very much regret that two previous replies to the hon. Member on the question of disclosure from these records, on 9 March 1984 at column 721 and on 30 October 1984 at column 891, did not refer to these circumstances. Information about the number of occasions on which names and addresses have been disclosed in any year and to whom is not collected; but personal data maintained by the National TV Licence Records Office will be subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1984.