§ Sir Ivan LawrenceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to grant Government Departments and agencies direct access to criminal records held on the police national computer for security vetting purposes. [16058]
§ Mr. MacleanI have agreed with the Association of Chief Police Officers that limited direct access to the criminal record information held on the police national computer will be allowed to six Departments and agencies. The checks performed under this arrangement will be carried out strictly in accordance with the existing statement of security vetting policy announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 15 December,Official Report, columns 764–66. The Departments and agencies, which will be taking up the new service at differing times, are the Ministry of Defence, the Secret Intelligence Service, the Security Service, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority—acting also on behalf of BNFL plc, URENCO, URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd. and the UK NIREX—the Home Office, and the Department of Trade and Industry.
The new arrangements will allow these bodies to improve the efficiency of their procedures through direct preliminary checks which would establish whether or not a subject has a criminal record, but would not give them access to the record itself. In the minority of cases where the preliminary search indicates that the subject has a criminal record, the Departments or agencies would continue to ask the national identification service—formerly the national identification bureau—to supply the record itself.