§ Mr. Normantonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the developments in the last two years of the mini-computer and word-processing equipment market, he will reconsider the relevance of the Data Protection Act and provision for greater exemptions from its provisions.
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§ Mr. WaddingtonThe Act is not yet fully in force and it is too soon to consider whether any changes are required.
§ Mr. Normantonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide an estimate of the cost of litigation and the services of the courts for which his Department is making contingency plans as a result of the implementation and enforcement of the Data Protection Act;
(2) if he will estimate how many additional lawyers are going to be needed, within the relevant Government Departments, as a result of and the enforcement of the Data Protection Act.
§ Mr. WaddingtonNo. We do not believe that it is possible to make estimates of the type the hon. Gentleman suggests with enough precision to be of any value.
§ Mr. Normantonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many civil servants have been appointed to staff the office of the Registrar of Data Protection; what increase is anticipated over the next three years; and what will be the gross cost per annum to the Exchequer arising from all aspects of the implementation of the Data Protection Act.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe registrar has at present 44 permanent and 36 temporary staff, of which only one is a civil servant. The Registrar is currently reviewing his long-term staffing requirements and it is not possible to provide a reliable estimate of the eventual complement he will require.
It is intended that the cost of the registrar's operations under the Act will be covered by registration fees received from data users. Some Government Departments are likely to incur costs in meeting the subject access provisions of the Act and in other compliance costs, some estimates of which were included in the explanatory' and financial memorandum to the Data Protection Bill in 1983.
§ Mr. McCrindleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will be able to publish the total of those who have registered under the Data Protection Act 1984 and to estimate the number of users who have not done so.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe Data Protection Registrar estimates that by 10 May he had received approximately 110,000 applications for registration. Applications are continuing to be received in considerable numbers and it will be some time before he will be able to make any estimate of the number of data users who may not have registered.