§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has on the position of each of the other EC countries with respect to the content444W of the proposed European directive on data protection in relation to (a) the inclusion of manual files in the directive, (b) the consent requirements, (c) the inclusion of personal data held for national security purposes and (d) the proposals with respect to direct mail and profiling; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldIt would not be appropriate to attempt to describe the position of each member state on each of these issues. Discussion in the Council's working group has shown that some countries tend to favour the approach taken by the Commission's draft directive (SYN 287), which includes manual files and provisions for notification and consent of the data subject. Other countries, have been arguing for a directive closer to the Council of Europe's convention 108 on data processing, which applies only to computerised personal data and does not have consent provisions as such; and other countries favour an element of both approaches.