§ Mr. Dickensasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider the introduction of legislation to provide penalties for unauthorised interception of computer networks.
§ Mr. WhitelawI have no plans for such legislation at present. However, the report of the data protection committee, published in December 1978 (Cmnd. 7341), included recommendations designed to improve the security of computerised data concerning individuals, which I am considering in the light of the outcome of the consultations on the report initiated by my predecessor.