§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
In the light of an original intention that it should be published by early spring 2001, what progress is being made in the preparation of the code of conduct on employers' monitoring of e-mails of their staff by the Information Commissioner; and when it is now expected that the code will be made available. [HLI911]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe document in question is a code of practice on the use of personal data in employer/employee relationships. I understand from the commissioner that following the reply I gave the noble Earl on 1 February 2001 (Official Report; WA 78), she wrote to him on 14 February about her plans for publication and related matters and offered a meeting to provide further information if that would be helpful. Given the complexity of the issues involved, she was planning at that stage to publish the code in a number of separate sections, one of which would specifically address employee monitoring, including the monitoring of e-mails. I understand that the commissioner has since taken a firm decision to proceed on this basis and that she hopes to be in a position to complete the process by the end of the year.