Information Commissioners can serve up to two five year terms,
and Thomas was appointed as Commissioner in November 2002, taking
over from Elizabeth France who served two terms in the office then
known as Data Protection Registrar.
"The Prime Minister, in a Written Ministerial Statement today
[Thursday], announced that the Queen has approved the
re-appointment of Mr Richard Thomas as Information Commissioner
from 29 November this year until June 2009," said a Government
statement.
Thomas has asked for a shorter second stint in the job. "He is
being re-appointed for a further term but, at his own request, only
until his 60th birthday in June 2009," it said.
The Information Commissioner's job is to monitor the use of and
enforce the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.
He can issue decision notices which are binding on organisations or
individuals. To fail to comply with a decision notice is a criminal
offence.
Thomas recently admitted that he had been relatively relaxed on
enforcing the FOI Act in its first year. “We saw the first year as
a learning year for ourselves as an organisation and also for
public bodies generally and we tried to be reasonably tolerant,
reasonably non-confrontational trying to help public authorities
get it right,” he said in evidence to a Parliamentary Select
Committee last summer. “We have resolved that we must be
considerably tougher in some respects as we go into the second and
third year.”
Thomas has also seen his warning of 18 months ago that the UK
was "sleepwalking into a surveillance society" become part of the
lexicon of groups and people worried about the build up of
information gathered by the Government on citizens.
The Information Commissioner is independent of Government and
reports directly to Parliament.
Thomas was previously a director of consumer affairs at the
Office of Fair Trading and head of public affairs at the National
Consumer Council. He has also worked with the Citizen Advice Bureau
and as director of public policy at law firm Clifford Chance.
