asked the Minister for the Civil Service what plans he has to ensure that there is no centralisation or cross-departmental amalgamation of the various personal data bases now being created by individual Government Departments and other public bodies.

As was made clear in the supplement to the 1975 White Paper, "Computers: Safeguards for Privacy" (Cmnd. 6354), the Government have no intention of allowing the computer systems under their control to be linked together to produce a centralised or amalgamated data base. Limited transfers of personal information take place between Government Departments and other public bodies for specific and well-defined purposes. These transfers were listed in the 1975 White Paper supplement, and an updated list will be published shortly with the report of the Data Protection committee.