Serious Crime Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 96: 96: After Clause 63, insert the following new Clause— ““Role of Information Commissioner (1) Section 51 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) (general duties of the Commissioner) is amended as follows. (2) In subsection (7), at the beginning insert ““Subject to subsection (7A),””. (3) After subsection (7), insert— ““(7A) The Information Commissioner may, on his own initiative, assess any data processing conducted under sections 61 to 65 of the Serious Crime Act 2007.”””” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, the purpose of the amendment is to ensure that the information commissioner has the right to carry out assessments of data processing under Clauses 61 to 65 of his own volition. He would not have to wait for an invitation to do so. In Committee we debated at some length the importance of the oversight that should be carried out by the information commissioner. I am grateful to Mr Vernon Coaker, the Home Office Minister, for arranging between the Committee and Report stages a meeting with the Information Commissioner, Mr Richard Thomas. The meeting was attended by my noble friend Lord Lucas and myself, and we both found it most constructive. I want to put on record that I found it invaluable to hear from the IC himself an overview of his position regarding the provisions of the Bill and his recommendations for improvement. His opinion has determined my approach to amendments at Report throughout the whole of Part 3. The discussions helped me to crystallise in my mind the core amendments that should be made to the Bill to make it work more effectively and fairly. The Government have already tabled some such amendments, which we shall reach later in the group beginning Amendment No. 105. Of course I shall not pre-empt that discussion, but there remains one issue that has not yet been resolved. It is covered by my Amendment No. 96. I believe that it is important for public confidence in the new proposals for data matching and data mining that the Information Commissioner should have the authority to initiate assessments. The Home Office Minister, Mr Coaker, made it clear at our meeting that he was prepared to take up this proposal from the Information Commissioner by way of an amendment. Will the Minister tell the House what progress the Government have made with their own amendment on this matter? Are they still committed to ensuring that it is inserted in the Bill, and do they believe that that will be achieved before the Bill leaves this House? I beg to move.