Getting off lightly?

In a debate which traces its roots back over several years, the House of Lords defied the government last month and succeeded in narrowly passing an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. MPs still need to pass the amendment for it to become law, but if the amendment survives it will become a criminal offence to “intentionally or recklessly disclose information contained in personal data to another person, repeatedly and negligently allow information to be contained in personal data to be disclosed, or intentionally or recklessly fail to comply with [data protection] duties”. The interaction between law and politics that has led us to this point has made for interesting viewing.

Richard Thomas heads up the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) which oversees the operation and enforcement of the UK's privacy and information legislation, most notably the Data Protection Act 1998. With already limited resources at his disposal, Thomas' remit was widened significantly when