During a debate on a bill to introduce an Independent Board to oversea government statistics, Charles Walker requests clarifcation on a LibDem amendment about confidentiality of personal information.

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): Will the hon. Lady explain what type of personal information is covered by the amendment?

Julia Goldsworthy: As Len Cook has said, the problem is that there is no consistency about how information can be used. For example, personal information provided to the census is covered quite robustly, but survey data are not.

Government amendment No. 61 exempts the intelligence services from the provisions in the Bill, but that is a very narrow area. Our amendments are a constructive attempt to remove ambiguity. People must be certain that the information that they provide will be kept confidential. If the Bill is clear about how that data can be used, and how such data absolutely cannot be used, it will help to build public confidence in our system of statistics, and data can be employed in a more useful way.

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