Written question asked by Lord Moonie (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Neville-Jones (Conservative) on Thursday, 20 January 2011.

Criminal Records Bureau

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the time limit of information held by the Criminal Records Bureau.

Answer: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has access to police records and those belonging to its other data sources for the purposes of processing CRB checks. The CRB is not responsible for the retention of those records because the CRB does not own them; information held on the CRB's processing system shows only applicant data included on a CRB certificate at the date of issue. The CRB has a data retention policy which applies to corporate data held in both electronic and paper form. The data retention policy has been developed in accordance with data protection principles.

Secondary information