Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department's Case Information Database retains copies of (a) landing cards and (b) microfilm numbers on an electronic database in cases where the Landing Card Unit destroyed physical landing cards.

Physical landing cards are not retained. These are routinely disposed of once statistical and biographic data has been recorded.

Landing cards that were previously scanned onto microfiche, are now scanned onto PDF format and DVD. The statistical and biographic data is then entered onto the Home Office’s Case Information Database. Scanned data is retained for 15 years.