Written question asked by Alan Duncan (Conservative) on Monday, 19 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 January 2006. It was answered by Alun Michael (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 January 2006 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Data Protection

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps his Department has taken to ensure that users of internet data storage companies are informed of the data protection legislation governing providers based in the EU and US.

Answer: [holding answer 9 January 2006]: Enforcement and guidance regarding, the Data Protection Act, which is derived from the EU Data Protection Directive, is the responsibility of the Information Commissioner, details of the Commissioner's work can be found at (http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/). The Data Protection Act puts an obligation on UK-based companies to ensure that data is adequately protected, regardless of where the data is stored.Advice regarding data protection legislation has been provided as part of the DTI's information security business advice web pages (http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/infonnation_security/) and through various information security publications. The advice is generic and not targeted at any specific sector. It's based upon how Information Security standard BS 7799 can contribute towards meeting the security requirements of the UK Data Protection Act.

Secondary information