Personal and Commercial Information (Hansard, 24 March 1994)

The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)
My Lords, a number of statutory provisions have a bearing on the lawfulness of such activities. They include the Data Protection Act, the Theft Act and the Computer Misuse Act. Some personal and commercial information is publicly available. Whether an unlawful act has been committed will depend upon the circumstances of each case.

§ Baroness Nicol
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer, which of course leaves the situation rather wide open. Is the noble Earl aware that several Members of this House have received an offer of services from ACT Investigations Group offering, among other things, to supply for payment details of personal telephone calls, of mortgage repayments, of bank balances and of arrears on electricity and other bills, in addition to a great deal of commercial intelligence? At the end of the offer form, the group says: More sensitive areas of intelligence are available upon request". That has caused a great deal of distress to some noble Lords. If it is impossible to safeguard such information, is it not time to make either the obtaining of it or the use of it a criminal offence?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, know that a number of people have received the leaflet to which the noble Baroness refers. I agree with her: I thought that what it was proposing sounded pretty awful. The fact is that any person or business is entitled to carry out such work provided that it is done within the law. I believe that it would be wrong to start banning inquiry agents or any such company because, after all, many of them are 743 wholly acceptable and undertake much good work; for example, tracing missing people. What we must do is ensure that the law is correct.
A number of those agencies use different techniques. If such an agency uses a technique which is illegal, it is important that that should be discovered. But, as in all such matters, sufficient evidence would have to be found which would stand up in a court of law.
However, I can tell the noble Baroness that, on the whole, the Data Protection Act is an adequate safeguard. It is possible that there is a small loophole whereby information is obtained by deception. We have to make it clear beyond doubt that a person who obtains unauthorised access by deception to personal data is guilty of an offence. We shall be seeking the necessary legislative provision to make amendments to the law in that particular case.

§ Lord Wigoder
My Lords—

Noble Lords
Cross Benches!

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, can my noble friend say whether any legal proceedings have been instituted in respect of such an offence?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, I am not aware of any such legal proceedings being instigated. Of course, it would be up to any individual who is so offended to take the necessary action against those who perpetrated the offence.

§ Lord Wigoder
My Lords—

Noble Lords
Cross Benches!

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, I believe that there will probably be time for both speakers. However, perhaps the noble and learned Lord, Lord Brightman, would like to put his question first.

§ Lord Brightman
My Lords, is the Minister aware that, paying a sum of money which varies between £245 and £1,000, I am able to find out the balance on his banking account; I can get his last statement; I can get the average balance on his banking account over the past six months; I can get confirmation of his overdraft facilities; and I can get a sweep search for other accounts, together with his overseas tax haven, and a copy of his itemised telephone calls? Therefore, is there not a strong case for considering the introduction of some amending legislation to prevent such an appalling intrusion into his private affairs?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord for having carried out such voracious homework. I can only say that, if he got all of that for about £200, it is cheap at the price. However, perhaps I may tell the noble and learned Lord that I was in fact subject to precisely that process by one Sunday newspaper which was investigating the matter. Those involved thought that it would be quite exciting to find out such information, and, indeed, they did so—although they did not quite ascertain all the details 744 outlined by the noble and learned Lord. Moreover, they published the fact that they had done so in their Sunday newspaper. I took action and went to the Data Protection Registrar. I told him that I thought it was unfair. The registrar took such steps as he could. But we were unable to find out how the information had been acquired. If you cannot find out whether an illegal act has been perpetrated, it is impossible to take those concerned to court.

§ Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone
My Lords, is there not something to be said for considering more seriously the adoption into the law of the United Kingdom of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which provides a civil right of privacy over which the individual can take action?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, we shall certainly consider any such suggestion. Of course, there is no general right of privacy in England and Wales at present, although the law provides remedies in relation to certain specific activities. Following the recent report of Sir David Calcutt, Her Majesty's Government undertook a consultation exercise to assess whether there should be a new civil tort of infringement of privacy. We are still considering the matter. Nevertheless, I agree with the drift of your Lordships' views; namely, that it is pretty unsavoury that people can gather this kind of information.

§ Lord Jenkins of Putney
My Lords, having regard to what the noble Earl has just said, is it not the case that this is one of those activities which is not satisfactorily dealt with after the event but needs a licensing process so that those who are exercising a legitimate area of business can be separated from the large number of cowboys? I know that it is against the Government's philosophy to regulate anything, but while they are deregulating in some areas will they not recognise that there are areas which need regulation? Will they not consider this matter?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, I am entirely happy to consider anything of that nature. A number of inquiry agents operate perfectly respectably and a lot of information is in the public domain. It is acceptable to some people to pay an individual to obtain information which they could obtain on their own account but do not know how to.

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, the Minister's answer to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Brightman, was fascinating. My first question has to be: was the information which the Sunday newspaper obtained correct, and, if it was, is there no implied contract between the Minister and his bank which would enable him to sue the bank for allowing such information to be given out?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, this is all getting a spot personal. I did as the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh, said. I asked the staff at the bank what on earth they thought they were doing in allowing such information to be given out. They said they were equally horrified that such information had been given out because it was not the bank's philosophy to allow that to happen. Quite a 745 lot of information can be obtained quite simply by people ringing up and saying, "I am so-and-so. Can you tell me what is in my account?" I believe that the improvements that we intend to make will help in that area.

§ Lord Wigoder
My Lords, it is of no help to say that the individual may have a right of privacy which he can enforce when the difficulty is that the individual never has the opportunity to discover that his privacy has been invaded.

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the noble Lord is quite right, but the fact is that anyone who carries out any business, or indeed any private individual, is entitled to take action, proviced he keeps within the law. If he keeps within the law, no offence will have been committed. Where a person has committed an act that is outside the law, that is an offence upon which the courts can take action, but that means that there must be evidence which will stand up in a court of law. I agree that it is difficult to obtain such evidence, but that is also the case in plenty of other criminal cases.