28 January 2009

Ministers and mandarins kibosh privacy pledge

NO2ID has discovered not one single minister or head of a central government department has signed up to the Personal Information Promise (PIP), launched
today by the Information Commissioner [1].

Further, a Freedom of Information request [2] by campaign group NO2ID [3] reveals that Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Justice, Sir David
Normington, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office and Sir Leigh Lewis, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions were invited to
sign the PIP but have (so far) refused to do so.

Given the massive expansion of information sharing powers buried by the Ministry of Justice in the Coroners and Justice Bill, which received its
Second Reading in the Commons this Monday, the failure of Jack Straw – Minister of the department that sponsors the Information Commissioner – to
make this public commitment to preserve and respect people’s privacy is particularly noteworthy.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator, said:

If ministers won’t even make a public commitment to abide by current data protection law, why should we trust them with even more personal information?

It’s no surprise they won’t sign the Personal Information Promise whilethey push ahead with virtually unlimited powers to traffick in private information. Clearly ministers and bureaucrats don’t want to be held personally accountable.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) Details on the Personal Information Promise, and a list of organisations which have signed it can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/about_us/news_and_views/current_topics/personal_info_promise.aspx

2) The response to Information Request IRQ0230364 on 19/1/09 says:

“The government departments approached by the ICO and invited to sign up to
the Personal Information Promise were as follows:
. The Ministry of Justice, Right Hon. Jack Straw MP.
. The Home Office, Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary.
. The Department of Work and Pensions, Sir Leigh Lewis, Permanent Secretary.

You also asked for a copy of the responses given by those departments that chose not to sign up to the Personal Information Promise. … To date we
have not received a response from the government departments approached.”

3) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of
‘database state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing. The background documents on the government’s developing information sharing
habit are assembled at http://www.no2id.net/datasharing.php

23 January 2009

The government has sneaked into the Coroners and Justice Bill, to be debated in the House of Commons on Monday, a single clause that turns the Data Protection Act on its head. [1] NO2ID [2] today attacked the way that these massive new powers have been brought forward in all but secrecy as ‘deceptive and disreputable’.

The campaign group is launching a comprehensive briefing [3] for MPs, exposing in detail how the government is trying to remove all limits on use of private information by officials. ‘Information sharing orders’ could amend any law and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to allow government departments to use information obtained for one purpose in pursuit of other ‘policy objectives’.

The analysis, written by NO2ID General Secretary Guy Herbert, points out that public opinion is overwhelmingly against more data sharing after the ‘Disc-gate’ disaster of 2007.[4]

Herbert predicted public fury at the news. He said:

No-one trusts the government over privacy. And this is evidence you shouldn’t. We were promised after the HMRC disaster they wouldn’t do it again. But they are snooping addicts – who have now started lying about their habit.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/coronersandjustice.html
The relevant clause is 152, near the end. The bill is a rag-bag of eye-catching measures including the re-introduced plans for secret inquests, new sentencing and witness-anonymity measures, and changes to the law on pornography. Without a spotlight on it, the technical-looking clause 152 might never even have been debated.

2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of
‘database state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing. The background documents on the government’s developing information
sharing habit are assembled at http://www.no2id.net/datasharing.php

3) Copies available by email from general.secretary@no2id.net and shortly by download.

4) See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7104368.stm

15 January 2009

As NO2ID highlighted in the Queen’s Speech [1], the Coroners and Justice Bill which received its First Reading in the Lords yesterday [2], will turn the Data Protection Act on its head as far as government use of personal information is concerned – giving powers to ministers to override confidentiality and data protection and to use information collected for one purpose for any other purpose.

As fits a snooping power, this is being sneaked in. Four clauses in the 160-clause bill, which contains a bundle of more eye-catching measures, create a new regime of ‘information sharing orders’ that any government department can use to change acts of parliament and override confidentiality.

If passed into law this would mean that ministers would, for example, be able to order that any information collected in the 2011 census could be passed to any government department. Any promise of secrecy made by any minister or government agency could be overridden at any point in the future.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator said:

The data sharing powers in this Bill are a perversion of justice and of language, converting the Data Protection Act into its exact reverse. If this passes, you can forget you ever had privacy.

Guy Herbert, NO2ID’s General Secretary said:

We rightly had to wait 100 years to see our ancestors’ census forms, but any promises that your 2011 census answers will be confidential might as well be printed in disappearing ink.

-ENDS-

Notes:

1) See ‘The Big Brother state – by stealth’, Independent, 4/12/08 -

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-big-brother-state-ndash-by-stealth-1050576.html

2) See http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/coroners-justice-bill.htm