§ Mr. Michael BrownTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 3 March,Official Report, column 463, (1) if he will make it his policy to ensure that any references to individuals' sexuality are deleted from the police national computer; [19434]
(2) on how many occasions an individual's sexual orientation has been recorded on the police national computer. [19433]
§ Mr. MacleanThere is no specific data field on the police national computer for recording sexual orientation. This might be inferred from the details of the convictions history and offending pattern. Information recorded on the PNC must be relevant to the purposes for which it is held in order to comply with the data protection principles of the Data Protection Act 1984. Data on sexual orientation would not be relevant for these purposes and would be removed if found to have been improperly recorded.
Records are not kept of how many occasions an individual's sexual orientation may have been improperly recorded on the PNC.