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Ed Balls, the Prime Minister’s closet confidante, was last night named among nearly a dozen government ministers who are breaching the UK’s data protection laws. The Children’s Secretary and other top ministers including James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, were cited on a list of shame handed to the privacy watchdog. A total of eleven ministers are due to be contacted by the Information Commissioner’s Office this week and warned that continued non-compliance could land them fines of £5000. It will tell them that under the Data Protection Act (1998), MPs who collect, store or use details about their constituents must place themselves on the Data Protection Register. Former London minister Keith Hill MP was fined £200 and paid £300 in costs in 2000 after he was convicted for non-notification under an earlier version of the laws. Messers Balls and Purnell risk the same fate, as both have never registered, nor have six other members of the government, claims the Mail on Sunday, author of the list. They are: Phil Woolas, Home Office Minster; Tony McNulty, Employment Minister, Ian Pearson, Business Minister, Skills Minister Sion Simon, Planning Minister Ian Wright and whip Mark Tami. The ICO will also contact three more – Defence Minister Quentin Davies, Health Minister Ann Keen and whip Ian Lucas, whose notifications have effectively expired. The office expressed its surprise at the number of ministers seeming to act unlawfully, not least because data protection has not been out of the headlines anytime over the last year. It threatened that, after being warned, ministers who fail to notify within a reasonable period, or who fail to give a good reason why they don’t need to, will be considered for prosecution. Nov 17, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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