§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his policy towards the use of data for computer matching to create personal computer profiles for commercial and mailing purposes.
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§ Mrs. RumboldWe will carefully consider any recommendation the Data Protection Registrar may make when his consideration of the issue of computer matching is complete.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any proposals to increase the funding of the office of the Data Protection Registrar; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldWe have agreed a 1991–92 increase of 8.6 per cent. in cash terms on the previous year. Funding will continue to be determined in the light of expenditure bids and overall public spending constraints.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement concerning the retention of data concerning acquittals on police computer records.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe recording of data on police force computers is a matter for individual chief officers. They are guided by the code of practice for police computer systems which has been prepared by the Association of Chief Police Officers. A copy of the code is in the Library. Prosecution information is not retained on the police national computer in the event of an acquittal.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if there are any United Kingdom Government or European Community proposals to extend data protection legislation to manual files; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe Government have no present plans to extend data protection legislation to manual files. The draft directive on data protection, issued by the Commission of the European Communities on 13 September, covers structured collections of manual data. Negotiations on the draft are expected to start next year.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions were initiated by the Data Protection Registrar in(a) 1987, (b) 1938, (c) 1989 and (d) 1990 to date; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe figures, collected by reference to the time when cases were brought to court, are as follows:
Number 1987 1 1988 4 1989 19 11990 17 1 To date. Most of the prosecutions were for failure to register. Good practice in the handling of data is enforced primarily through discussions with data users or their representative bodies, supported where necessary by enforcement notices.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has made within the European Community concerning the issuing of a directive on data protection; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldNone as yet. The Government are consulting United Kingdom organisations with an interest 251W in data protection and will take their views into account in negotiations on the draft directive. We expect these to start next year.