| The force had been quizzed by a trade union official, using Freedom of Information, after a UK-wide list of party supporters was made public last November.
The leak of around 12,000 names led to a man being convicted of offences under the Data Protection Act in England earlier this year.
In a response seen by the Tele, the Tayside force said membership of the BNP would lead to any police officer or support staff employee facing formal action.
However, it would not confirm or deny the force had “processed any data relating to the leaked BNP membership list” or how any such decision was taken.
A spokesperson for the force said, “While there is interest in keeping the public informed with regard to such matters, there is no parallel interest in confirming or denying that information is held, when to do so could compromise an investigation or hinder the prevention or detection of a crime.”
That explanation, the force said, should not be taken as an indication or conclusive evidence that the information being sought by the trade union existed.
“The police service would be legally entitled to process this sensitive data . . . the grounds for any decision would be that being a member of the BNP is incompatible with the role of a police officer/police staff and would be regarded as gross misconduct requiring formal action.”
The Solidarity trade union, which submitted the FoI application, said today it had questioned forces across the country and received varying responses. The union believes that the ban on membership of the BNP and two other groups is not compatible with European law and is seeking to have it overturned.
The leaked file appeared to include a BNP membership database from April 15, 2009. It named doctors, soldiers, solicitors and teachers among supporters, and had their contact details — home phone numbers, addresses etc.
The secretary of the local branch of the Scottish Police Federation, which represents around 1100 rank-and-file officers in Tayside, said today he thought the force “probably would” have checked the leaked list against personnel records.
However, Sgt Malcolm Gibbs said none of his members had been the subject of disciplinary action in relation to BNP membership and was certainly not something he was asked about. |
