To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what records of former German prisoners of war (POWs) from the Second World War were maintained in the UK; what assessment he has made of their accuracy; whether such records distinguish between POWs identified as Nazi Party members or active sympathisers and others; whether records are kept of which POWs in each category remained in the UK after the general repatriation of POWs; and if he will make a statement. (116974)

The Home Office was not responsible for Prisoners of War (POWs) during the Second World War. Personnel records maintained by the War Office’s Prisoner of War Information Bureau (PWIB) in London were transferred either to the German Red Cross in 1949 or to the Deutsche Dienstelle (WASt) in Berlin following a decision in 1960 to offer them to the German Federal Government. It is not feasible to make an assessment of the accuracy of these records or whether they contain the information sought. I understand that most other surviving records from the War Office and other Departments relating to German prisoners of war have already been released to the National Archives.