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Data Protection and Freedom of Information

The Information Commissioner will have considerable rights, and I shall give the hon. Gentleman the precise answer when I sum up, if I have your permission and that of the House to do so, Madam Deputy Speaker. He rightly says that data sharing is a sensitive issue, but data sharing is necessary and it is not prohibited by the Data Protection Act 1998, nor by subsequent legislation. What is crucial is that if data sharing takes place, it does so in strictly regulated circumstances, so that the data that are shared lawfully are regulated, and severe penalties and procedures are in place to ensure that data are not wrongly shared.