Clause 29 - Unauthorised disclosure of information
Identity Cards Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Richard Allan (Shadow Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, Cabinet Office; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
In respect of the amendment moved by the hon. Member for Woking, which would insert the words ''recklessly and knowingly'', we may differ on that matter. We have been accused of being woolly liberals throughout most of the debate on ID cards, but in respect of measures that are included to protect privacy we will join the hon. Gentlemen opposite in the leather-clad authoritarian camp, which is perhaps the converse of a woolly liberal. We believe that if private data is included, there needs to be some protection for it, and the best way to do so is to ensure that there are clearly specified offences for people who breach those levels of protection.
However, we are in sympathy with the hon. Member for Woking on whistleblowing and joined him in signing amendment No. 141. I can imagine circumstances under which whistleblowing may be appropriate. Someone in the hierarchy may seek to ensure that someone is issued with an ID card who should not have one, or has no entitlement. If that is so and an operator in the system becomes aware of a card being issued falsely, we want to be clear that they can come forward and declare to the authorities that that has happened without them being at risk of committing an offence.
I can also imagine circumstances, following those that we discussed earlier, where there is an abuse of the system. We have set out a series of safeguards governing how law enforcement agencies and others, including public authorities, can use the data in the national identity register. An operator of the register may become aware of wholesale trawling and searches that appear to be outside the scope of the law, and an agency might, for whatever reason, have taken it upon itself to use the data in a way that was not intended to be unlawful. If the operator came forward again and reported that appropriately, are we clear that they could do so without falling foul of the legal provisions in clause 29? The original drafting of the clause does not make it explicit that they could come forward and do that.
Amendment No. 141 has been tabled in order to get those assurances, and that is why we have associated ourselves with it. The Minister should be able to put on the record that an individual who became aware of some form of abuse of the system would not be liable to prosecution if they came forward and reported that.