§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many databases, broken down by departments, comprising data and information about individual citizens are currently maintained and administered by central government. [HL2110]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, to the Earl of Northesk, dated I April 2004.
The National Statistician and Registrar General for England & Wales has been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on the number of databases about individual citizens currently maintained by central government (HL2110). I am replying on his behalf.
The General Register Office (GRO), part of Office for National Statistics (ONS) is presently leading the project development stage of the Citizen Information Project (CIP). The intention is to explore the possibility of developing a high-quality central population register which would hold core contact details for members of the public and which could be accessed by other government departments who currently maintain their own separate databases. Access would be subject to rigorous conditions of confidentiality and data protection.
Our research so far has indicated that the following central government departments and agencies currently maintain large-scale databases containing details about individual citizens:
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority
- UK Passport Service
- Department of Health/National Health Service (NHS)
- Department of Work and Pensions
- Inland Revenue
- Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
- General Register Office
- Office for National Statistics
Research so far has not been exhaustive and has focused on the government bodies that maintain large-scale citizen databases. There are likely to be many other government organisations that maintain databases of citizen information, although many of these databases will be smaller and will relate to more specialised government services. Some organisations may hold more than one database. It is anticipated that more information about the scale and scope of other government databases will 179WA emerge during the development stage of the CIP. However, a comprehensive list of all databases of citizen information in government is not available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.