PL&B UK E-news, Issue 57

1. Manual data exemption expires in October

The exemption under the 1998 Data Protection Act that relates to certain manual (non-digitised) records created before 24 October 1998, including those held in structured manual filing systems, expires on 23 October 2007. At the moment, such data is not bound by most of the requirements of the first five data protection principles.

The Act does not require that data controllers digitise or computerise old manual records.

2. Lords inquiry into surveillance

The House of Lords Constitution Committee will investigate the impact of surveillance and data collection on citizens’ privacy. The Committee inquiry, which was launched on 26 April, will study whether the Data Protection Act is enough, or whether additional protection is needed. The deadline for written evidence is Friday 8 June.
Charles Raab, Professor of Government, Edinburgh University, a contributor to PL&B newsletters and a speaker at PL&B conferences, has been appointed as Specialist Adviser to the Select Committee on the Constitution for its enquiry which has the title: 'The Impact of Surveillance and Data Collection upon the Privacy of Citizens and their Relationship with the State'.

See www.parliament.uk.

For further details on the Privacy Laws & Business UK Newsletter, please click here.

Copyright Privacy Laws & Business 2007