Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

The data sharing issues raise considerable concerns, some of which have been outlined by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, and by my noble friend Lord Avebury. The first stop when things go wrong is quite rightly the Office of the Information Commissioner. Given the increased amount of data sharing that is going to take place if the Bill goes through in its current form, may we know, first, what representations, if any, the Information Commissioner’s department has made to the Government about the Bill and what advice it has been given? Secondly, given the inevitable amount of extra work that will result from this, what extra resources are being given to the Office of the Information Commissioner, which is now severely stretched through having to deal not just with issues of data loss but also inappropriately used data? It is the one office in the entire rather gloomy data picture at the moment that does command public confidence, and I commend the Information Commissioner on developing the office as a repository of public confidence. But to continue in that role, it needs to be properly resourced. The Government made a bit of progress when they accepted that the Information Commissioner should be able to make spot checks on public bodies and that there should be a system of penalties for officials who contravene any of the data protection provisions. But in order to put any of that into force, the commissioner and his office need to be properly resourced. I have strong concerns in that direction.