Reduce number of commissioners, say pressure groups

The groups have said that the UK needs a single privacy commissioner, and not the tangle of officials it is creating to police the area, reports the Register . Terri Dowty, director of Action on Rights for Children (ARCH), warned of the uncoordinated and ineffective proliferation of commissioners now operating in this area. Dowty made the call on behalf of a number of other campaign groups, including Privacy International, Genewatch UK and NO2ID. The call came in a statement broadly welcoming of government proposals to cut back on its predecessor's over-bearing regulation of everyday life, Dowty expressed concern that the protection of freedoms bill, which received its second reading in Parliament this week, proposes the establishment of two new commissioners for biometrics and CCTV. This would expand the number of commissioners responsible for privacy and surveillance from three to five. However, Dowty said: "[this] will not necessarily lead to greater protection for the public and may even fracture the protection that already exists. She went on: "The only way of providing meaningful oversight of freedom and privacy is to bring all of these commissioners into a single privacy commission." Over the last few years, the UK has invested heavily in commissioners, with individuals bearing this title employed to look after areas as diverse as children, traffic and immigration services. There is already: - An Information Commissioner, responsible for promoting and enforcing compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998; - An Interception of Communications Commissioner created by s57 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, whose duties include the oversight (but not the investigation) of those who issue warrants and the procedures of those acting under warrants; and - A Chief Surveillance Commissioner with similarly limited powers, charged with keeping under review the operation of the powers and duties of directed and covert surveillance under RIPA. The repeal bill proposes adding two more commissioners whose remit would broadly cover issues of privacy. Clause 34 of the bill would establish a Surveillance Camera Commissioner, responsible for advising the home secretary on the drawing up of a code of practice (on the use of surveillance cameras) "encouraging" compliance with the code and reviewing its operation. Clause 20 would establish a Biometrics Commissioner, whose role would be limited to reviewing any national security determinations made under existing terrorism legislation or under Clause 9 of the bill, and with the power to order the destruction of biometric material if it cannot lawfully be retained. A spokesman for the Home Office said that such rationalisation was not being proposed, because the areas covered by each commissioner and the powers granted to each were wholly different. His response suggested that a single view on the subject of commissioner rationalisation was not possible as some of these roles fall under the Ministry of Justice, while others fall under the Home Office. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.