Bar Council Condemns Data Sharing Threat in Coroners Bill
25 February 2009
The Bar Council today issued a warning about the data sharing provisions of the Coroners and Justice Bill.
If passed, Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill would allow personal information about individuals held by any organisation to be shared with Government departments or others without any of the protections contained in the Data Protection Act 1998. Instead, Ministers would be able to decide whether personal information could be disclosed to third parties, in the private and public sectors, purely on the basis that the information sharing is ‘necessary to secure a relevant policy objective’.
The Bill allows Ministers to override any existing legislation prohibiting disclosure and to authorise unlimited further forwarding of the information to others without any adequate checks and balances.
Chairman of the Bar, Desmond Browne QC said:
“The information technology revolution means that more and more information about each of us is now held electronically by numerous organisations ranging from the Government itself to private companies such as banks and insurance providers. The internet has made sharing this personal information easier than ever before. We now need to stop and ask ourselves whether unrestricted sharing is in fact such a good thing. The Secretary of State for Justice is reported to be considering amendments to this part of the Bill. The Bar Council urges him to take this opportunity to put safeguards in place which will ensure the preservation of our civil liberties.
“The necessity to ‘secure a relevant policy objective’ is no safeguard at all. It drives a coach and horses through the measures put in place by the Data Protection Act 1998. The lack of checks and balances means that there will be no limit to the circulation of data once it is released. The enactment of such legislation would lead to a massive reduction in public confidence in the Government’s reasons for data gathering. It is also unnecessary in the light of existing provisions for data transfer in cases where there is an exceptional public interest.”
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Notes to editors
1. For further information please contact the Bar Council Press Office 020 7222 2525
2. The full text of the Coroners and Justice Bill is available here
3. The Parliamentary timetable relating to the Coroners and Justice Bill is available here
4. A briefing prepared by the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association relating to the Coroners and Justice Bill is available here
