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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in respect to the Compliance Cost Assessment associated with the Data Protection Bill [Lords], he will (a) place in the Library, in the form which respects commercial confidentiality, copies of the questionnaire telephone scripts used to assess the costs of compliance and all the responses used to assess the costs of compliance and all the responses received, (b) indicate the total number of individuals contacted during the consultation process, and the number of respondents with specialist knowledge of data protection matters, (c) list the organisations involved in providing information for the Assessment and (d) publish an updated version of the 1994 paper, "Costs of Implementing the Data Protection Directive". [25450] Mr. George Howarth: I am placing in the Library a copy of the questionnaire, which we sent to 84 organisations. We received responses from six local authorities; one representative educational organisation; five charities; four large manufacturers; three small manufacturers; ten financial and other service organisations; eight large organisations involved in marketing; and nine retailers. We assured participants of anonymity and it would not be appropriate to make the individual returns available, or list names. We did not ask about the depth of their data protection knowledge. Estimated costs to Government Departments were assessed separately.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

25450; 305 c342W

Session

1997-98

EC documents

Dir95/46/EC

Subjects

Disclosure of information Data protection Costs Data processing EU law Personal records Impact assessments Questionnaires

Legislation

Data Protection Bill (HL) 1997/98