Home Office promises proactive powers for info commissioner The Home Office has promised to give the Information Commissioner powers to make spot inspections on people's databases to determine if they have complied with the Data Protection Act. Reporting to the first hearing of the Home Office Select Committee into the surveillance society today, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas …
... the regulator also has the resources to implement them effectively!
I requested the ICO to exercise their statutory power to make a "Section 50" [Freedom of Information Act 2000] decision over a refusal by a public body (an NHS Trust) to disclose the minutes of certain meetings of one of their panels. This was in February 2006!
NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED for over a year - no-one was allocated to start looking into the request, no-one responded to my e-mails, and after asking my Member of Parliament to look into it, she was told the same - resource problems meant that such cases were taking over a year just to be assessed for allocation.
About a month ago (March 2007), I got a letter stating that it was now being looked into.
So, lots of money for a few hundred database inspectors, then...???!!
This will also apply to Government databases etc, won't it?
After all, the Data Protection Act says that:
"Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes." and...
"Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed." and...
"Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes."
etc etc.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/80029--l.htm
So if, say, a Government or Police Force was holding data on a large number of citizens and decided to introduce ID cards or a National Identity Register or a DNA Database (including people who'd not been convicted of a crime)...
I have got to agree with the other poster, the Information Commissioner is a total and utter waste if space. I made a complaint about 6 years ago and they refused to investigate because the Public Body I complaint about did not want them to go ahead in case it prejudiced their position. They then allowed the Information Commissioner to investigate. Who was the party complaint about ?Of course the Police and the Information Commissioner cow tows to whatever they tell them .Total waste of time as they have no powers and dont use what they do have anyway.
And whether they posses backbones.
Sometimes, and I'll happily admit - not often, people working for these quangos do take their jobs seriously.
They do want to make sure that the oversight they've been tasked with is carried out.
Obviously you hit on one of the reasons things don't happen as they should - adequate resources.
The other main problem is that of authority. If the quango has no authority, it can't do much of anything except complain - much like the various organizations that complain about proposed European legislation violating privacy rights. They do what they can by bringing things to the attention of the public, but without any authority or laws to back them up nothing ever happens.
The chances are that no real powers of investigation and no power to dish out sanctions to those that violate the law will be given by a government so intent on turning Britain into a police state.
You have to wonder at what these people are thinking when they run for office. What is it that parents do to them as children that turns them into selfish, greedy, paranoid bastards - with great public speaking skills?
"I know, although my job is to represent those that voted for me, what I'll do instead is assume every one of them is a terrorist - and if I make a few quid from businesses that profit from the bills I pass into law, everybody wins - well everyone except the people that voted for me."
Although not leaving in the UK, I follow the school fingerprints scandal, and I have to say, given the current ICO behaviour in all that, giving him any more powers (yes, it's largely needed) won't change anything.
The guy (or his office, can't recall) has basically stated, on school fingerprinting, "Too late, it's done, can't do nothing", which has been reported by El Reg. How can it be anything but bollocks to give any proactive powers to such a moron ?
The UK gov. would be well advised to take the model of the french HALD (Haute Autorite de la Lutte contre les Discriminations) which, even with a probably lower budget, manages to sue people for skin color (and other) discriminations, and gradually change minds (yeah, I know, still a long way).
It works because the boss is good and they have control powers.
The ICO will have to find a boss first, then get control powers.
Without that, it will be, as others above have posted, a waste of space.
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