Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 31 May (HL15807), in what circumstances they withhold from Parliament the names of civil servants who have been convicted in open court, and sentenced to prison, for offences in connection with their official duties.

When a member of staff has been sentenced in court following an arrest by the Home Office Anti-Corruption team, the name of the civil servant is not disclosed. Although the names of staff members are known in court, this is not necessarily the same as being in the public domain.

The disclosure of names would have to satisfy a high threshold under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and s.9 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 makes it an offence to disclose the fact of an offence in respect of a rehabilitated person.