Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that a person's criminal record as used by the police and the courts includes convictions made under any previous names; and if she will make a statement.

All information relating to convictions for recordable offences is retained on the Police National Computer (PNC). It is the Chief Constable's responsibility, as the data owner in law, to ensure that any data recorded on the
PNC is accurate.

When a person is recorded on the PNC it is done so in the name they provided to the police at the time of the event. That name lasts for the lifetime of the record and aliases are recorded as and when known and records are consolidated
where appropriate.

When a person is arrested their fingerprints may be taken, as well as a DNA sample. The fingerprints are checked against the criminal fingerprint system (IDENT 1). The individual’s DNA profile is also checked against the National
DNA Database (NDNAD). Where either of these biometric searches matches with the offender, the PNC records in relation to the previous results are automatically linked with the current arrest, regardless of the names previously used.