§ Mr. Arthur Davidsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what would be the cost to his Department of implementing the recommendations set out in the Lindop report on data protection.
§ Mr. MayhewThe precise, and probably considerable, costs of complying with the recommendations in the report of the committee on data protection depend upon the details embodied in the proposed codes of practice under which the Department would be expected to operate. If, for example it were necessary to provide a print-out service to comply with proposals that members of the public should be able to verify personal data relating to them, a redesign of computer systems may be required. The level of demand would also determine whether additional computer equipment would need to be purchased.
Extra staffing costs would be incurred in servicing data subjects' requests, meeting registration requirements of the Data Protection Authority, and drawing up and operating the codes of practice. Direct costs would also be payable to the Data Protection Authority in the form of fees payable for registration.