HC Deb 18 May 1993 vol 225 cc138-9W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security to what investigations his Department has been subject by the Data Protection Registrar in relation to a suspected breach of a data protection principle; if he will summarise the nature of each complaint and state when the complaint was made; and what remedial action was taken by his Department to ensure future compliance with the principle subject to the investigation.

Miss Widdecombe

Between 11 November 1987 and 31 March 1993 the Department has responded to 15,094 requests from data subjects for access to its computer files. In this same period, 44 complaints concerning suspected breaches of data protection principles have been received from data subjects via the Office of Data Protection Registrar. The principles involved and the dates on which the complaints were made are in the table.

Complaint type Number received Dates received
Principle 1 4 21 June 1990
30 September 1991
8 June 1992
21 July 1992
Principle 3 4 7 March 1988
11 July 1988
13 February 1989
19 March 1991
Principle 4 1 12 April 1992
Principle 5 13 11 November 1988
31 July 1989
1 March 1990
5 March 1990
24 July 1990
18 March 1991
14 May 1991
20 July 1991
22 July 1991
29 July 1992
30 September 1992
27 October 1992
3 March 1993
Complaint type Number received Dates received
Principle 7 17 3 February 1988
7 March 1988
3 June 1988
15 June 1988
22 August 1988
26 October 1988
26 April 1990
24 October 1990
20 December 1990
18 December 1991
13 May 1992
9 June 1992
6 July 1992
8 December 1992
25 January 1993
9 March 1993
19 March 1993
Principle 8 5 26 September 1990
26 November 1991
3 December 1991
7 July 1992
14 January 1993

In all cases the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of the Data Protection Registrar and no changes to any of our computer systems have been made necessary in order to comply with the Data Protection Act.