§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has as to the numbers of subject access requests made to police forces; whether he will introduce regulations to make it an offence for any person to require a data subject to seek subject access to personal data held by the police; whether he will introduce legislation to determine when police records may be used for vetting purposes; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that from July 1989 to June 1990 the subject access office of the national identification bureau received 10,818 requests for subject access under the Data Protection Act 1984. Of these 1,371 requests were made initially to the Metropolitan police and 9,447 to other forces. We are currently discussing with representatives of the police service and the Data Protection Registrar how to deal with enforced subject access. The Home Department is planning to mount a scrutiny in the autumn to examine the most appropriate arrangements for the maintenance of, and disclosure from, the national collection of criminal records.