Home Department written question – answered at on 23 May 2006.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there exists a prohibition in law on supplying data from the National Identity Register to a foreign government for purposes connected with (a) national security and (b) the prevention and detection of crime.
Section 18 of the Identity Cards Act 2006 allows information to be provided to overseas authorities, for example law enforcement agencies, for the purposes of criminal proceedings and investigations, as provided for in section 17 of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. This is subject to safeguards provided in section 21 of the Identity Cards Act and section 18 of the 2001 Act. Other than that, there is no provision, or power to make provision, in the Identity Cards Act for information from the NIR to be provided, without consent, overseas.
Yes14 people think so
No14 people think not
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Annotations
Chris Lightfoot
Posted on 27 May 2006 3:23 am (Report this annotation)
Compare this to the answer given to Ian Paisley MP at Second Reading of the Identity Cards Bill, when he asked Charles Clarke, then Home Secretary, to "confirm to this House that none of the data that we are discussing [that is, data on the NIR] can be dispensed outside this United Kingdom?":
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-06-28a.1151.0...
Mr Clarke replied that, "the Identity Cards Bill does not allow information to be provided from the national identity register to any foreign Government. That is the position--full stop."