§ Mr. Chris SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will set out the procedure within his Department for authorising transfers of personal data to other Government Departments; and at what level such decisions are authorised;
(2) on what grounds decisions are taken to transfer personal data held by his Department to other Government Departments;
(3) on what statutory basis transfers of personal data take place from his Department to the police; and how many such transfers take place each year;
(4) on what statutory basis transfers of personal data take place from his Department to other Government Departments; and how many such transfers take place each year;
(5) what internal guidelines covering the transfer of personal data to other Government Departments are available to staff in his Department; and whether he will place a copy of any such guidelines in the Library;
(6) what kind of personal data held by his Department, whether on computer or manually, are transferred to other Government Departments;
(7) what kinds of personal data held by his Department are transferred to the police; and whether records are kept of such transfers;
(8) what plans exist in his Department for the transfer of personal data via the Government data network; and what new procedures have been adopted within the Department to prevent unauthorised transfers of such data;
(9) what records are kept of transfers of personal data from his Department to other Government Departments; and whether the Data Protection Registrar has access to the relevant records;
(10) whether records will be kept of all personal data transferred to other Government Departments via the Government data network;
(11) whether the rules governing the transfer of personal data from his Department to other Government Departments are the same for data held manually as for data held on computer.
§ Mr. FreemanThe majority of personal data held by the Department relates to departmental staff records. This information is held in manual and computer systems and access is restricted on a need-to-know basis. This information is transferred to other Government Departments on a regular and routine basis by executive and clerical staff, normally in conjunction with actual or prospective career transfers of the staff between Departments.
Personal data about patients having legally induced abortion is supplied by doctors to the Department's Chief Medical Officer in accordance with the Abortion Regulations 1968, (SI 1968 No. 390 as amended by SI 1969 No. 636, SI 1976 No. 15 and SI 1980 No. 1724). The regulations restrict disclosure of that information except to the persons and in the circumstances specified in the regulations.
Some personal data is held by the Department in respect of young people detained in youth treatment centres and in connection with the activities of the regional medical service, the dental reference service and the social services inspectorate. Where personal medical data have 304W been referred for a second opinion, this is not disclosed for any other purpose unless the individual's consent has been obtained.
The Department also holds some data about the remuneration of general medical practitioners and others in the health services. The regional medical service holds personal data about GPs, but these are not disclosed to other Government Departments.
Regional medical service doctors, in common with any other doctor, have a statutory duty to notify the Chief Medical Officer at the Home Office about individuals considered to be or suspected to be addicted to certain drugs.
All personal data held on computer systems are subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1984; this is so whether or not there is any connection to the Government data network.
The only circumstances in which the Department might transfer personal data to the police would be where the Department itself had an interest in an offence, or in other cases where serious crime was involved; no records are kept of such transfers.