Make custodial sentences available to courts for blagging: Information Commissioner
The Information Commissioner is to call for custodial sentences to be made available to the courts to stop the unlawful use of personal information.
Commenting before an appearance in front of the Justice Select Committee today, Christopher Graham said: “It beggars belief that – in an age where our personal information is being stored and accessed by more organisations than ever – the penalties for seriously abusing the system still do not include the possibility of a prison sentence, even in the most serious cases.
“Access to online records is now part and parcel of almost every transaction the citizen makes – with government agencies, local government, the NHS, DVLA, high street banks, insurers, social networks. This only makes the risks to privacy greater and the need for security greater still.”
The Information Commissioner will tell MPs that custodial sentences would be a more effective deterrent to the unlawful trade in, and access to, personal information.
Graham pointed to the extensive media coverage of offences under s. 55 of the Data Protection Act – so-called ‘blagging’.
Section 55 of the Data Protection Act makes it an offence to “knowingly or recklessly, without the consent of the data controller, obtain or disclose personal data.” The current penalty is a maximum fine of £5,000 in a Magistrates’ Court and an unlimited fine in a Crown Court.
The ICO said there had been an 18% rise in reported allegations of such offences in 2010/11 compared to 2008/09.
Graham said: “This offence is not just about private investigators finding out about celebrities’ hospital appointments. This crime has the potential to devastate ordinary people’s lives. The existing paltry fines are not enough to deter.”
The Information Commissioner urged the government to commence the legislation Parliament put in place by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. Sections 77 (the custodial penalty) and 78 (providing an enhanced ‘reasonable belief’ defence for the special purposes) are yet to come into force.
“Blagging isn’t hacking, but the issue has got caught up in the controversy over press behaviour,” Graham warned.
“Unfounded concerns about press freedom were a distraction in 2008 and they should never have halted the introduction of stronger sanctions. They should not delay any further the commencement of the powers needed to combat this modern scourge.”
The ICO has brought a number of successful prosecutions over s. 55 offences in the recent past.
These include a personal injury claims company employee illegally obtaining NHS patients’ information over a four month period; police staff unlawfully accessing people’s personal details using the Police National Computer; and a private investigator trying to obtain a rape victim’s address from her GP and utility company.
The Information Commissioner argued that making available custodial sentences as the penalty for s. 55 offences had been “overwhelmingly supported” by respondents to a government consultation in 2006.
Philip Hoult
