§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 8 March,Official Report, column 181, if he will make a statement on the parameters applying to filing systems under the draft data protection directive; and if he will make a statement on the implementation of the data protection directive. [26448]
§ Mr. Nicholas BakerIn implementing the directive in respect of manual data, member states must have regard to the definition of a "personal data filing system" contained in article 2. Subject to this, the directive allows member states some flexibility in determining precisely the types of manual records to which the directive should apply. Once the final form of the directive is known, we shall be consulting widely on how these and other provisions should be implemented in United Kingdom law.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the new offence of procuring unregistered disclosures, under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994; and what discussions he has had with the Data Protection Registrar in relation to this offence. [26449]
§ Mr. Nicholas BakerOn the information available to me, I believe that the new offence, which was brought into force in February this year, has had a positive effect upon the unacceptable activities at which it was aimed. The Data Protection Registrar has kept Home Office officials closely informed of her plans for enforcing the offence.