Written question asked by Lord Moynihan (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Carter of Barnes (Labour) on Thursday, 11 June 2009.

Sport: Personal Data

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government how guidelines recently issued by the European Commission concerning privacy and personal data protection will impact on the "whereabouts tests" for sportsmen and sportswomen covered by the World Anti-Doping Agency's rules.

Answer: On 6 April 2009, the EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party published an opinion on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International Standard for the Protection of Privacy and Personal Information (ISPPPI), related provisions of the WADA Code and International Standards, and other privacy issues in the context of anti-doping. The opinion is available on the EU's website at http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/wpdocs/2009/wp162_en.pdf. Following this, WADA approved a revised ISPPPI which will come into force on 1 June 2009. This will bring the ISPPPI in line with European data protection standards and will provide further assurances that appropriate, sufficient and effective privacy protections are in place for "whereabouts" information. This is available on WADA's website at http://www.wada-ama.org/en/dynamic.ch2?pageCategory.id=807. I will place a copy of both these documents in the House Libraries. The European Commission, the Council of Europe and WADA are now working together to look at other data protection issues identified by the working party, which could not be addressed by making changes to the ISPPPI. This includes issues related to the Code and International Standard for Testing, which set out the requirements on "whereabouts". This process will determine whether any other changes are necessary.

Secondary information