§ Mr. BattleI beg to move amendment No. 133, in page 62, line 18, at end insert—
'(4) Any information which is held in the form of data protected under the Data Protection Act 1984 and which is considered personal data for the purposes of that Act shall be exempt from the requirements of this section unless the registration for Data Protection purposes allows such disclosure and all tenants of the local authority have been made aware of that fact.'In Committee, I asked the Minister how the proposals in the Bill can be reconciled with the Data Protection Act 1984. It has been suggested that prospective landlords will be able to get information that they would not be able to get under the provisions of the Data Protection Act, as individual information is protected under that Act. Either the Data Protection Act applies to the Bill and prospective applicants are not allowed to have it, or the Data Protection Act will have to be repealed. Will the Minister explain how he can possibly reconcile the two pieces of legislation?
§ Mr. WaldegraveI hope that I can help the hon. Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Battle), although I cannot advise the House to accept his amendment.
As the hon. Gentleman's amendment recognises, the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1984 are not technically relevant to disclosure of information by 84 landlords to applicants under clause 90. The prevention of disclosure provisions in the Act do not, by virtue of section 34(5), apply to disclosures which are required by a statutory duty such as clause 90(1) would impose. The Act, therefore, provides that it cannot be used as a technical obstruction to giving the applicant information which he validly needs to pursue his application under part IV.
Giving the applicant the information he needs is not, in our view, inconsistent with the important principle of privacy. If an applicant receiving data under clause 90 stored them in ways covered by the provisions of the Act, they would, of course, apply. Clause 90(3) also provides that the applicant is entitled to see only documents which he reasonably requires to pursue his application, and which the landlord is not under a duty not to disclose.
I accept that the reference in clause 90(3)(b) to duties of confidentiality could be confusing in relation to the Data Protection Act. The Government propose to bring forward amendments in another place to clarify the interaction between the two, but we propose at the same time to provide a duty of confidentiality on applicants, requiring them not to disclose information they receive in pursuit of an application under part IV, whether under clause 90 or otherwise, except to a person with a genuine need to know it for the purposes of the application. The district valuer and the independent teller are the obvious examples.
I hope that the new duty which we shall bring forward in another place will help the hon. Gentleman.
§ Amendment negatived.