Police may be breaking privacy laws by recording the ethnic background of job applicants in an attempt to improve the service’s record on diversity.

Lute Nieuwerth, who is responsible for the national police force’s diversity policy, told the Volkskrant that the service wanted to ‘establish the boundaries of what is permissible’ as it tries to meet a target of recruiting 25 per cent of officers from minority backgrounds.

A police spokesman told NRC that job applicants had been asked about their parents’ country of origin since 2008 and all details were anonymised. But Sandra Loois, spokeswoman for privacy watchdog Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, said collecting personal information was banned unless police could show they fell into one of 10 categories for exemption.

Organisations are allowed to collect private personal details if they have permission from the people whose data is being collected or if there is a ‘significant general interest’ in retaining them. ‘The question for us is whether the police can successfully apply one of these grounds,’ said Loois.

Gerrit van de Kamp, chairman of the ACP police union, called for the police to clarify their methods and allow them to be independently scrutinised, adding that he would raise the subject with senior police officers later this week.

But lawyer Maarten de Man, who specialises in privacy law, said the courts could allow the practice if they are satisfied it forms part of the police’s diversity strategy. ‘In general registering details of ethnicity is permitted if you are using then to correct the deficit that vulnerable groups have to deal with,’ he said.