Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data protection safeguards are in place in relation to court lists containing home addresses and dates of birth of individuals, being provided to individuals and organisations by HM Courts & Tribunals Service, either centrally or via individual courts.

Home addresses and dates of birth of individuals are not included in Crown Court, County Court, Family Court, High Court, lists of hearings, nor in lists of hearings in the Tribunals.

Standard Lists produced by the Magistrates Court do contain the home addresses and dates of birth of individuals due to appear in court and these lists are only available to approved accredited members of the media, criminal justice partners and other government departments with legitimate reasons for requiring such information.

Standard lists do contain Special Category Data as defined by Data Protection Act 2018. This information is intended to assist the accurate reporting of court proceedings and should be handled appropriately by legal professionals and members of the media.

HMCTS will immediately cease the sharing of this data, if there is concern about how it will be used. Such data is held subject to licencing and can only be shared in agreement with licencing agreements; abiding by those licencing agreements is part of data protection.