Draft legislation allowing widespread sharing of personal data among government agencies, bypassing the Data Protection Act, has now been changed after a campaign by Privacy International and other groups.
A clause in the Coroners and Justice Bill would allow any Minister by order to take from anywhere any information gathered for one purpose, and use it for any other purpose. After the dangers of such a wide ranging power were pointed out the government has decided to abandon this clause. However Privacy International expect that this victory is temporary and that the government will seek to pursue the legislation in a different bill at a later stage.
