Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 143: 143: Clause 129, page 89, line 37, leave out ““and 55”” and insert ““, 55 and 55A””. The noble Baroness said: I am conscious, especially with five right reverend Prelates on their Benches, that I am detaining the Committee before the debate on blasphemy. However, I am afraid that I have to underline why Clause 129 is important. The Government have, for various reasons, dropped clauses from the Bill. We are anxious to underline why we think Clause 129 is particularly important and should stay in the Bill. The clause increases the penalties for unlawfully obtaining personal data. At the moment, the penalty is a pretty derisory fine, and the serious and organised nature of data crime is such that an adequate legislative response is now necessary. As it stands, the clause implements proposals put forward by the Information Commissioner as part of the solution to the enormous problems that he exposed in his report, What Price Privacy? He exposed an extensive and lucrative illegal trade in confidential personal information. There were networks of middlemen, often involved or associated with the private investigation industry. Their clients ran from private individuals to financial services companies, insurers, journalists, law firms and even local authorities. It was all set out in his report. The suppliers and, in many cases, the customers involved in the trade, were committing an offence under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. I will not detain the House by giving many examples, but a private investigator passed on address details obtained by deception from a medical centre to an abusive husband who was trying to track down his wife who had moved on to start a new life. There are very serious issues here. The Information Commissioner discovered that there was a tariff of prices that were charged for obtaining confidential information such as telephone information, vehicle and other records—there is a real catalogue of difficulties here. The report demonstrated that, although it has been a criminal offence for years, the current penalty regime is too weak and needs revision. Those conclusions have been backed up by numerous committees of both Houses. In your Lordships' House, the Science and Technology Committee’s report, Personal Internet Security, urged the Government to introduce measures such as this and recognised that existing penalties for offences were quite inadequate. Your Lordships' Constitution Committee report into a surveillance society came to a similar conclusion. Several other committees in another place, including the Home Affairs Committee, were also of that opinion. Fundamentally, the low penalties devalue the offence and mask the seriousness of the crime. Some of the concerns raised about the way in which this clause is currently framed have come from the media. Media concerns stem from the fact that, at the moment, there is no definition of public interest. A journalist who obtained information that was in the public interest would, if this clause were not amended, be liable to prosecution under a considerably increased penalty, which we would be fully supportive of in other circumstances. The Government need to revise this along the lines of the amendment that I have tabled—which I am sure is imperfect and the Government could introduce a much better one—to defend the position of journalists who are genuinely working in the public interest. I urge them to do that. Our Amendment No. 146 refers to the recent catalogue of personal data disasters in which so many government departments have been involved in the loss of data, whether through gross negligence or mere carelessness. Our amendment addresses that. The data controllers referred to in the amendment are a key group in ensuring that procedures and practices governing personal data are well thought-out and well practised. They must ensure that there is no room for sloppy practice at the least and intentional disclosure at the worst. Our Amendment No. 146 would strengthen Clause 129 in an important way. I beg to move.