Whose data is it anyway?

There has rightly been concern about a proposition in the Government’s Bill on Coroners and Justice about making it easier for organisations to share data. Some of the criticism of the Government for bringing forward this proposal has been unfair, given that the idea for it came first from the Information Commissioner, who is after all our independent guardian of our data protection rights.

Any followers of my blog will know that I am serving on the Committee scrutinising this Government Bill and yesterday we debated this data sharing proposal. I’m really pleased to report that the Minister, Bridget Prentice MP, quite openly accepted that the data sharing arrangements have been too widely drawn – and she plans to re-write the offending Clause.

In as much as this is a victory, it is common sense that is the winner. The idea that there are some illogical and unnecessary barriers to legitimate data sharing came from the Information Commissioner himself. He thinks it is reasonable to remove such barriers. I’m prepared to support him in this conclusion.

But when we Committee members took evidence from the Commissioner, Richard Thomas, at the beginning of February it was clear that the Government’s wording for the Clause had gone further than he envisaged. There was even a suggestion that a Minister would be able by Order to abolish the Data Protection Act itself!

So when the debate was held yesterday there were many voices raised in opposition to the Clause in question. As I say, the Minister played a blinder in taking the criticisms on board and agreeing to re-write the Clause. She went further and offered Honourable Members talks on the new wording. I welcome this approach most heartily.

I spoke in the debate and as with my last blog I set out below a link to the Hansard record of my comments which, although brief, did set out a justification for the Clause, its short-comings and some of the elements of what will be needed for an acceptable wording.

The committee moves on next week to only slightly less controversial matters – for example reform of the law on murder!

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/coroners/090226/pm/90226s05.htm