Data Protection (Hansard, 10 June 1992)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's arrangements for consulting the Data Protection Registrar during the planning stage of any initiative involving the collection, use or disclosure of personal data; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
Officials are aware of the need to consult the registrar about proposed legislation or other initiatives which might affect or be affected by the Data Protection Act 1984, and will consult him as necessary when planning the collection, use or disclosure of automated personal data.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will describe each separate index of personal data stored on the intelligence and investigation unit at Harmondsworth; how many items of data are stored under each index; how many entries are in each index; and what was the number of accesses to each index over the last year.

§ Mr. Charles Wardle
There are two databases on the Immigration Service's intelligence and investigation unit's computer at Harmondsworth which contain personal datathe ISIIU index contains information considered to be of long term immigration interest; the United Kingdom passport abuse database contains information about United Kingdom passports which have been detected in fraudulent use.
Individual records in the ISIIU database contain 11 fields of information. Those in the United Kingdom passport abuse database contain 15, of which 11 are the same as in the ISIIU index.
The ISIIU database contains about 500,000 records; the United Kingdom passport abuse database about 3,500. No record is kept of the number of accesses to either database.
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§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will describe, in a form that does not jeopardise the prevention of crime or national security, the circumstances when the security services or the Customs and Excise(a) have terminal access to police computers or (b) can receive information from police computers.

§ Mr. Charles Wardle
Access to police computer systems and the disclosure of information from these systems and from the police national computer are matters for chief constables.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect on privacy of freely available copies of the council tax valuation lists, in relation to the list's combination with(a) the electoral register, (b) the credit reference agencies and (c) vendors of databases derived from public sources; and whether he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
None. Any evidence of misuse of automated personal information will be investigated by the Data Protection Registrar, who has responsibility for enforcing the Data Protection Act 1984.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many meetings he has held with bodies representing the views of data subjects in relation to the European Commission's proposals for a data protection directive.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
None since taking up this post, but the then Minister of State had one such meeting on 21 February 1991. Ministers and officials are regularly informed of the views of all who have an interest in data protection, whether as data subjects or data users.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will describe each category of suspect index made available to officials at ports of entry; how many suspect persons are under each category; how many items of data are stored about each category; and what was the number of accesses made to each index over the last year.

§ Mr. Charles Wardle
There is a single suspect index, the purpose of which is to alert the immigration officer to take action in respect of an individual who might not he identified in the course of routine examination. The index currently contains about 10,000 entries. No record is kept of the number of occasions on which it is consulted by immigration officers.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will describe each separate index of personal data stored on INDECS; how many items of data are stored on INDECS under each index; how many entries are in each index; and what was the number of accesses to each index over the last year.

§ Mr. Charles Wardle
Data are stored on INDECS according to a unique arrival number and relate to the immigration status of individuals given conditional leave to enter the United Kingdom on a non-permanent basis under the terms of the Immigration Act 1971. In each case, details entered on the landing card are recorded together with the expiry date of the leave to enter. The number of data elements linked to the arrival number will range from 20 to 40 according to the conditions applying and the 167W number of subsequent movements in and out of the United Kingdom. There were 2.8 million records on I NDECS at the beginning of June 1992. Information on the number of accesses to the system is not available.