§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland why the decision not to allow the sale of the extract of the community charge register was taken; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LangThe decision was taken after careful consideration of representations made by the Data176W Protection Registrar and others that the sale of the publicly available community charges register was not an essential part of the community charge system and that there would be a potential threat to privacy if extracts were made too readily available to interests who might wish to use them as mailing lists.