§ Lord Tebbitasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 4 February (WA 19–20), whether the Answer given on that date concerning the legal jurisdiction under which information held by or on behalf of the Criminal Records Bureau is held would have been completely accurate on 10 December 2002, the day on which that Question was tabled; and [HL1688]
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 4 February (WA19–20), what are the names of all companies to which work on the processing of data held by or on half of the Criminal Records Bureau has been contracted or subcontracted; and [HL1689]
108WAFurther to the Written Answer by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 4 February (WA19–20), why information is being processed on behalf of the Criminal Records Bureau on the Indian sub-continent; and [HL1690]
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 4 February (WA19–20), whether the pay and conditions of work of persons on the Indian sub-continent handling information held by or on behalf of the Criminal Records Bureau are in accordance with the United Kingdom and European Union legislation on minimum pay and standards on employment. [HL1691]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)It has at all times been the intention that, in terms of data protection, security and other aspects, the arrangements for processing data should entail no material increase to the risk of misuse of data. Consequently, before agreement was given for any data to be processed in India, the site was visited by senior officials from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), who were fully satisfied that this was the case. The main CRB contract (signed in August 2000) requires that the CRB's private sector partner, Capita, and any sub-contractor of Capita, must comply with the Data Protection Act 1998; and that Capita may not enter into a sub-contracting arrangement without the permission of the CRB. The agreement between Capita and Hays Commercial Services Ltd, the sub-contractor undertaking this work on the Indian sub-continent, makes it clear that the provisions of English law apply. This was clarified in January this year by a variation of the original terms in order to make explicit Hays's obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.
This arrangement has proved highly effective in enabling large numbers of paper application forms to be processed with timely, efficient and accurate data capture and eliminating backlogs from this critical stage of the CRB process.
Non-EU countries are free to determine their own employment laws, having regard as necessary to obligations which would flow from membership of organisations such as the International Labour Organisation. I understand that the conditions and benefits offered by Hays are considered among the most attractive in the region, and that the salaries are well above the local average and in the upper quartile for the industry.
§ Lord Tebbitasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why it took them eight weeks to give their Answer on 4 February (WA 19) to Lord Tebbit's Question of 10 December 2002 concerning the Criminal Records Bureau. [HL1820]
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonThe noble Lord's initial Question caused us to seek clarification of the contractual provisions between Capita and Hays Commercial Service Ltd by including a specific reference that data processing is to be performed in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act 109WA 1998. It is very much regretted that, as a result, the noble Lord did not receive an earlier reply to his original Question.