Part of Home Department – in the House of Commons at on 8 June 2026.
Dan Jarvis
Minister of State (Cabinet Office), Minister of State (Home Office) (Security), The Minister of State, Home Department
My hon. Friend speaks with real authority on these matters. He will know that the theft of personal information is already criminalised in legislation, including the Fraud Act 2006, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Data Protection Act 2018. To ensure that those Laws remain effective, we commissioned an independent review of disclosures and fraud offences. The review has submitted its final report to the Government and will be published shortly. We will consider its findings carefully and what further action may be needed to strengthen our response to identity fraud. I am sure that the noble Lord Hanson will happily meet my hon. Friend.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
