Clause 3
Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill
12:15 pm
Shaun Woodward (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Media & Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; St Helens South, Labour)
I agree with my hon. Friend, but I shall add other reasons.
I do not think that the people who handle the information should take risks with it. Let us imagine that an employee uses a laptop in a public place and does not realise that personal information can be seen over their shoulder or carelessly sends information to the wrong email address, or puts the hard copy of information in an ordinary dustbin without considering that an unauthorised person might retrieve it. It would be up to the courts to decide, but it seems to me that none of those people would necessarily have acted “knowingly or recklessly” and so would not necessarily be convicted. In my judgment, they would have been careless, which the Bill should deter. When carelessness occurs, punishment should be sought.
Amendment No. 4 applies only to the first offence in clause 3, not to the second: that in subsection (2), which applies to employees, contractors and subcontractors. It would be odd—to say the least—to have different standards of proof for the release of information on the basis of the organisation that a person works for. Clearly, that is not what the hon. Member for Wantage intended.