Baroness Barker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Barker on 2016-04-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice the Department for Work and Pensions gives to trans individuals about how their confidentiality is maintained by that department on its database.

Lord Freud

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides its staff with information about providing services for transgender customers but does not provide information relating to data confidentiality specifically for transgender customers. DWP has a Personal Information Charter which informs all customers of the standards they can expect when we handle their personal information.

The DWP Special Customer Records (SCR) policy provides additional controls to transgender customers. These additional controls include clerical records being held securely by a senior manager, and access to computer records only being allowed to specific employees for specific business reasons and automatic notification of any unauthorised attempt to access records.