§ Lord Lloyd of Kilgerranasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps are they taking or propose to take to address the wrong or the dishonest acquisition of commercial confidential information and data.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)Obtaining property or a pecuniary advantage by deception is already an offence under the Theft Act. Theft of information is not in itself a criminal offence. We have no plans to change this. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has said that, subject to the views of interested parties, he is inclined to accept the Law Commission's recent recommendations which would make unauthorised access to a computer a criminal offence.