HC Deb 12 June 1990 vol 174 cc103-4W
Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (I) what subjects of discussions by the Trevi group the Minister expects to be resolved during the Italian Presidency of the European Economic Community;

(2) what areas of United Kingdom law are being looked at with a view to changes to meet the needs for common European Economic Community action as identified by the Trevi group;

(3) if he will list all the meetings of the Trevi group, and the subject discussed at each meeting and decisions arrived at; and if he will indicate the future areas of work the Trevi group will be addressing.

Mr. Waddington

During each presidency of Trevi a number of working groups meet to further co-operation against terrorism, drug trafficking and other serious crimes, reporting their conclusions to senior officials and Ministers. I and my colleagues will be reviewing the work done under the Irish presidency in Dublin next week, and I shall report the outcome to the House. The declaration made at our last meeting in Paris on 15 December 1989, a copy of which is in the Library, sets out a programme of work which is likely to be further progressed during the Italian presidency. No changes in United Kingdom law are currently being considered as a result of work in Trevi, which is concerned with practical police co-operation.

Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what discussions the Trevi group has had about passing information from the United Kingdom, held on the central police computer, relating(a) to criminal records and (b) suspected crime and suspects; and what protection the group intends to provide to protect the civil rights of any individual so identified;

(2) what discussions the Trevi group of Ministers has had about setting up a European Economic Community-wide database; and what consideration has been given in such discussions to the laws relating to privacy in such countries.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Trevi Ministers agreed at their meeting in Paris on 15 December 1989 to initiate a study of a possible common information system among member states, designed to combat the most serious forms of crime. The protection of data and of personal privacy is among the considerations to be addressed in this study, which is at an early stage. No decisions have yet been taken on whether to set up such a system and, if so, on what information it should contain or how it should work.

Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Trevi group of Ministers has agreed with regard to political asylum refused by one European Economic Community state; how applications will be considered in other European Community states; and what steps are being taken to harmonise the grounds for granting political asylum.

Mr. Waddington

At their last meeting in Paris on 15 December 1989, EC Immigration Ministers adopted a declaration relating, among other subjects, to measures on asylum. A copy of the declaration is in the Library. The next meeting is to be held in Dublin on 14 and 15 June and the outcome will be reported to the House in the usual way.