Crime and Security Bill

The Chairman of the Select Committee has raised a fundamental and central point—although it will look elliptical to the public—about the reticence of the Government and police authorities to put in the public domain much of the information necessary to make this decision. When Chief Constable Sims appeared before the Committee, he gave a series of comments that GeneWatch subsequently took to pieces forensically because he had conflated so many data. A huge amount of information is involved. It is computerised, so it is by definition on a database. It ought to be available to the Select Committee and to other, academic authorities to enable us to make rational decisions both about the kinds of issue that the Home Secretary mentioned, such as hazard curves, and different strategies for minimising impingement on people's liberty while maximising effectiveness.