Lock up personal data thieves, MPs demand

Thursday, 27 October 2011 12:01 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

Those who break data protection laws should be sent to prison, MPs have told ministers.

The Commons' justice committee said the government needed to authorise magistrates and judges to begin handing down custodial sentences for breaches of the Data Protection Act.

The MPs found that "great harm" can be caused by 'blagging' personal information through deception and selling on the data without permission.

"Fines are used to punish breaches of data protection laws, but they provide little deterrent when the financial gain exceeds the penalty," justice committee chair Sir Alan Beith said.

"Magistrates and judges need to be able to hand out custodial sentences when serious misuses of personal information come to light. Parliament has provided that power, but ministers have not yet brought it into force - they must do so."

Fines have not had a sufficient deterrent effect because of the huge financial advantages which can be accrued from breaking the law, the report found.

MPs also called on the information commissioner to be granted more powers to compel firms in the private sector to conduct information audits.

The commissioner might have been able to identify the problem of referral fees in personal injury cases sooner had these audits been available before, they claimed.

Sir Alan acknowledged that the government's drive to cut down the red tape burden on businesses, underlined by Nick Clegg earlier this week, needed overcoming to address this problem, however.

He added: "Ministers must examine how to enable the commissioner to investigate properly without increasing the regulatory burden on business or the public sector."

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• data protection act