The Home Office is considering assessing the impact on
personal privacy of any new law that gives the government
powers to hold more data on people, a
House of Lords Committee heard yesterday.
Michael Willis, minister of state for the Ministry of Justice,
said that a privacy review would be crucial for keeping public
confidence. "We are wholly sympathetic to the purpose of it," he
said.
Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister of state for security,
counter-terrorism, crime and policing, was more cautious, but said
that the idea was worth investigating.
He told the Lords' Constitution Committee, "Especially on
areas of real sensitivity, it is a point worth exploring. But
we have got to think about the practicalities as well".
Members of the committee criticised the government for using
secondary legislation, which does not require a parliamentary
debate, to push through plans to hold more data on citizens.
McNulty told the committee he was sympathetic with the
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas's comment that the UK could
be
"
sleepwalking into a surveillance society".
"There is a potential [for this happen] if we do not do things
in the right fashion. We are struggling with how to deal with the
very positive benefits of new technology and the interface of this
with individual's privacy. It is a warning we would do well to
heed."
"There is an increasing culture of being alive to the impact of
surveillance and data collection. We are getting a principle of
greater data minimisation," he said.
But he said the idea we were heading into 1984-style society is
"nonsense".