28 January 2008
NO2ID has discovered that not one single minister or head of a central government department has signed up to the Personal Information Promise (PIP), launched today by the Information Commissioner [1].
Further, a Freedom of Information request [2] by campaign group NO2ID [3] reveals that Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Justice, Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office and Sir Leigh Lewis, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions were invited to sign the PIP but have (so far) refused to do so.
Given the massive expansion of information sharing powers buried by the Ministry of Justice in the Coroners and Justice Bill, which received its Second Reading in the Commons this Monday, the failure of Jack Straw, minister of the department that sponsors the information Commissioner - to make this public commitment to preserve and respect people's privacy is particularly noteworthy.
Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, said:
"If ministers won't even make a public commitment to abide by current data protection law, why should we trust them with even more personal information?
"It's no surprise they won't sign the Personal Information Promise while they push ahead with virtually unlimited powers to traffick in private information. Clearly ministers and bureaucrats don't want to be held personally accountable."
-ENDS-
Notes for editors:
1) Details on the Personal Information Promise, and a list of organisations which have signed it can be found on the Information Commissioner's website:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/
2) The response to Information Request IRQ0230364 on 19/1/09 says:
"The government departments approached by the ICO and invited to sign up to
the Personal Information Promise were as follows:
. The Ministry of Justice, Right Hon. Jack Straw MP.
. The Home Office, Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary.
. The Department of Work and Pensions, Sir Leigh Lewis, Permanent
Secretary.
You also asked for a copy of the responses given by those departments that
chose not to sign up to the Personal Information Promise. ... To date we
have not received a response from the government departments approached."
3) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.
For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact:
Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: 07005 800 651
Press: click here
