Clause 44
Statistics and Registration Service Bill
10:00 am
Brooks Newmark (Braintree, Conservative)
The way I read it, clause 44 contains quite wide powers for the Treasury to authorise the disclosure of information where disclosure would otherwise be illegal or ultra vires. Although that information can only be gathered for statistical purposes and cannot be used for any other reasons, I support amendment No. 171, which clarifies a point about which I was concerned before by seeking to ensure that any personal information obtained in that way cannot be disclosed. That is important, because at the moment, under subsection (6)(b), the Treasury can make regulations containing “consequential and supplementary” provisions, which could authorise further disclosure by the board, even where that would otherwise be illegal, as mentioned in subsection (7)(b).
In the absence of amendment No. 171, I am concerned that the Treasury could, effectively, make regulations and not be subject to any scrutiny, thereby empowering the board to collect personal information and then to disclose it, even where it would otherwise be illegal. That sweeping power should, at least, contain a ban on the disclosure of personal information, as amendment No. 171 provides.