Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the protection of personal data held by private companies operating Government-shared services.

As with all outsourcing arrangements, security and information assurance measures are being implemented in line with the Government’s Information Assurance Standards, Good Practice Guides, Government Security Policy Framework and Data Protection Act. These Government security requirements were introduced under the previous Government and applied to outsourcing then. All shared services data will be handled, processed and transmitted in accordance with these security requirements, taking into consideration clients’ security policies.