§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home department if he will make a statement in relation to progress being made towards agreement on the proposed European Commission directive on data protection; and if he will outline the areas where there is still disagreement between member states.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI refer the hon. Member to my reply to a question from him on 31 March,Official Report, column 220.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the United Kingdom's position to exclude manual files containing personal information is impeding harmonisation of the United Kingdom data protection legislation with that of other member states of the European Community.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe exclusion of manual files from the Data Protection Act 1984 is no impediment to harmonisation of data protection legislation across the European Community at the level of the Council of Europe convention. With regard to the draft EC data protection directive, the position of manual data is only one of a range of issues needing to be resolved before a common position can be reached. While it would not be appropriate for me to disclose the negotiating position of individual member states, a number of other countries share the United Kingdom's concern about the proposed application of the directive to manual files.