Headquarters Identity and Service Parliamentary & Correspondence Management Team 4th Floor, Peel Building, SE 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF

Tel (020) 7035 8889 Fax (0870) 336 9175 Email [email protected] Web www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips

David Hansen Email : [email protected]

Reference : FOICR 17629/11

Date: 4 April 2011

Dear Mr Hansen

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your e-mail of 6 February in which you ask for information on the destruction of the National Identity Register data. Your request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Further to our letter of 8 March, we are now in a position to reply substantively. Pease see the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) response set out in the enclosed Annex.

In keeping with the Freedom of Information Act, we assume that all information can be released to the public unless it is exempt. In line with normal practice we are therefore releasing the information which you requested via the IPS website.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to the address below, quoting reference FOICR 17629/11. If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.

Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 Email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips

Information Access Team Ground Floor, Seacole Building 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF

Email: [email protected]

As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

H Reid Parliamentary & Correspondence Management Team

Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 Email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips

ANNEX

1. How many disks from Doncaster are to be/have been destroyed?

201 hard disk drives from Doncaster have been destroyed.

2. How many disks from are to be/have been destroyed?

160 hard disk drives from Crawley have been destroyed.

3. How many back-up tapes from Wakefield are to be/have been destroyed?

The back-up tapes from Wakefield were combined with those in Doncaster for destruction purposes. A total of 240 back-up tapes from these two sites were destroyed in Doncaster.

4. How many disks from London, , Liverpool, Blackburn, London City and Manchester are to be/have been destroyed?

A total of 63 disks were destroyed.

5. How many disks from Croydon and those which stored data from the early interest website are to be/have been destroyed?

There were 46 disks in total destroyed comprising of 2 disks from Croydon and 44 disks in respect to the Early Interest Website.

6. For each disk/tape identified in 1) to 5) please provide a copy of the certificate of destruction.

Destruction certificates covering the disks and back up tapes destroyed as referenced in questions 1-5 are provided.

Certificate IPS/2100/5 covers the 201 disks answered in Question 1 plus 17 of the 63 disks answered in Question 4 plus the 46 disks answered in Question 5.

Certificate IPS/2100/7 covers the 160 disks answered in Question 2.

Certificates IPS/2100/2, IPS/2100/1 and IPS/2100/8 cover 46 of the 63 disks answered in Question 4. The remaining 17 disks are included as part of Certificate IPS/2100/5.

Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 Email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips

7. For each disk/tape identified in 1) to 5) please provide video of its destruction.

A video of the complete destruction process was not made. However, a short video concerning the destruction has been made available by the Home Office and is available via the link: http://www.youtube.com/ukhomeoffice

8. Please confirm that the National "Identity" Register data is not stored on any other media. We know from the Register article that some systems may have "incorrectly retained data", all by themselves it appears. It may also be that additional media have been identified since the register article in November.

The NIR was not stored on any other media.

9. If there are any additional media in response to 8), please provide the information in 6) and 7) for each one.

See response to question 8, the NIR was not stored on any other media.

10. Please provide copies of any reports regarding the destruction, by officials who witnessed the destruction.

No reports existed at the time of your request. However, IPS are preparing a final report which will be ready for publication during Spring of this year.

11. Please provide the number of records extracted for "ongoing fraud investigations".

24 records have been extracted for ongoing fraud investigation.

12. In terms of the Data Protection Act please provide the purposes for which "aggregated management information that cannot be attributed to an individual" has been retained.

Aggregated management information that cannot be attributed to an individual" is not personal data and therefore is not covered by the Data Protection Act.

13. In a language which is not English, but is vaguely similar to English, sections 12 and 17-21 of the provided for you to leak information from the National "Identity" Register to Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. Please provide the name of every organisation to which you leaked data.

Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 Email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips

14) For each organisation identified in answer to 13) please outline the steps you have taken to ensure that the information is exterminated from that organisation. If, for example, you had leaked all the data to the Security Service then the destruction of media under your control would simply be a piece of theatre. Given the lengths the civil service went to get the National "Identity" Register set up it seems most unlikely it would allow it to be deleted on the whim of mere ministers of the crown.

The Identity Cards Act provided for the exchange of information with other government departments and relevant agencies in order to ensure the security and integrity of ID Cards (which have since been cancelled), to protect the rights of the legitimate card owner and to prevent their fraudulent use.

We neither confirm nor deny whether we hold the information you requested by virtue of sections 23(5) and 24(2) (Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters and national security) and section 31(3) (law enforcement) of the Freedom of Information Act. These sections exempt us from our duty to say whether or not we hold the information you ask for. In order to apply section 24(2) and Sect 31(3) a public authority is required to conduct a public interest test in order to assess the considerations in favour of confirming or denying that the authority holds the relevant information against those favouring the exclusion of the duty to comply with section 1(1)(a) of the Act. The relevant public interest tests are set out below. Section 23(5) is an absolute provision and consequently there is no further consideration required.

Public interest considerations in favour of confirming whether the information is held

Increased openness with regard to the organisations with which information could be shared would increase understanding, openness and transparency in this area. This would inform the public and lead to a deeper public knowledge in matters relating to the prevention and detection of crime and national security.

Public interest considerations in favour of maintaining the exclusion of the duty to confirm nor deny

Set against these considerations, if we were to confirm or deny whether we exchanged information for these purposes and, if so, with what organisations, this would reveal whether there were any security or law enforcement issues relating to the information gathered and held in accordance with the Identity Cards Act. This would be detrimental to the

Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 Email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips prevention and detection of crime and in itself would be prejudicial to the law enforcement process.

It is not in the public interest to disclose the capabilities of the UK authorities and the techniques that they may or may not use to safeguard the country. This is in line with usual practice in not commenting on the activities of the security and intelligence agencies and should not be taken as evidence that any such information does or does not exist.

Conclusion We have determined that the balance of the public interest lies in favour of neither confirming nor denying whether we hold the information requested.

This response should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you have requested exists or does not exist.

If any of my enquiries have been "reported to Parliament by Ministers" then a link to the information on the Westminster website will be all that is necessary to answer that enquiry. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100915/deb text/100915-0003.htm

Under Col: 945

Please note that "replies" which involve attachments in proprietary file formats are not acceptable. A reply which is not in plain text format will be deemed to be a refusal to answer. It may be that copies of documents and videos cannot be provided in plain text format, if that is the case please contact me to discuss a suitable format.

IPS are acting in accordance with Home Office instructions which recommend that all electronic departmental responses are issued in the portable document format (pdf).

Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 Email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ips