Statistics and Registration Service Bill

moved Amendment No. 181: 181: Clause 36, page 15, line 37, leave out paragraph (e) The noble Lord said: I apologise to the noble Baroness for not having moved Amendment No. 174, but my principal reason for not moving it was that I was rather reassured, somewhat against the grain of this Bill, by the Minister’s response to Amendment No. 171, when he said—or I thought that he had said—that disclosure would take place only for statistical purposes. Perhaps I was lulled into a false sense of security. In moving Amendment No. 181, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 183. They are not grouped together, but they are both probing amendments. The two paragraphs to which they refer appear to deal with information which would be disclosed for non-statistical purposes. I cannot imagine a court ordering the board to disclose information for statistical purposes, nor can I imagine the intelligence services doing the same. This clause looks very similar to a clause that I remember debating in a Bill merging the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise; it is a general clause. Could I have some explanation from the Minister as to circumstances in which personal information might be required by the court and, if he could, circumstances in which the intelligence services might be given that information? I beg to move.