The Lords Constitution Committee has warned that better checks
and balances are needed on the use of surveillance if the basis of
open democracy is not to be eroded by incursions into citizens'
privacy.
The Committee has published the results of an investigation into
the amount and nature of surveillance in the UK.
"The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state
and other organisations risks undermining the long standing
traditions of privacy and individual freedom which are vital for
democracy," said Lord Goodlad, the Committee's chairman. "If the
public are to trust that information about them is not being
improperly used there should be much more openness about what data
is collected, by whom and how it is used."
The Committee expressed concern about how widespread
surveillance was and what a routine part of life it had become.
"The UK now has more CCTV cameras and a bigger National DNA
Database than any other country. There can be no justification for
this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us
being recorded and pored over by the state," said Goodlad.
The Committee said that Government should place state use of
surveillance within the grasp of the courts, creating judicial
oversight for the use of surveillance and compensation for victims
of its misuse.
It also said that the Government should reconsider whether local
authorities should be allowed to conduct surveillance under the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
It also recommended that the Government be forced to commission
an independent privacy impact assessment every time it proposes the
collection of new data on citizens, and that it ask the Information
Commissioner's advice on laws which have privacy implications.
"We regret that the Government have often failed to consult the
Information Commissioner at an early stage of policy development
with privacy implications," says the report. "We recommend that the
Government instruct departments to consult the Information
Commissioner at the earliest stages of policy development and that
the Government should set out in the explanatory notes to bills how
and when they consulted the Information Commissioner, and with what
result."
The Committee also said that the public needed to be better
informed about the extent and implications of surveillance.
"We recommend that the Government and local authorities should
help citizens to understand the privacy and other implications for
themselves and for society that may result from the use of
surveillance and data processing. Government should involve
schools, learned and other societies, and voluntary organisations
in public discussion of the risks and benefits of surveillance and
data processing," says the report.
The Committee also recommended that a mandatory code of practice
be created to guide private and public operators of closed circuit
television (CCTV) systems.
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