---

Data Protection and Freedom of Information

No I am not, but I am hoping that because his office and his salary are being debated in the House of Commons, the commissioner will understand that one of the consequences of a pay rise backdated by 12 months is that he must deal with the one fundamental weakness of his office, which is the backlog of work. I am told that in the last year the commissioner had nearly 25,000 inquiries and complaints, and that he prosecuted 11 individuals and organisations and received just over 2,500 freedom of information complaints and closed about the same number. However, although 30 per cent. of the decisions were in favour of the complainant and 25 per cent. upheld public authorities' original decisions, only 13 per cent. of valid cases were closed within 365 days. As he is to be given a vote of confidence by the House, I hope that those figures will give him cause to reflect on whether he should insist on the resources to support him. Those resources would come from the Government, and I hope that the Secretary of State will respond to that. Colleagues, including my persistent hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), tell me that there are regularly delays of one year, two years, or two and a half years. I know that in the past year, one case took 32 months from complaint to decision; that is reported in the annual report. Other cases took 30, 27 and 26 months. Only six of the 20 cases in which a start date was identified were dealt with in less than 12 months, and the average time was almost 19 months. May I ask for an assurance, through the Secretary of State, that we will have a much speedier answer to complaints? We are talking about a really important job. It is important that there is a robust, independent person making sure that the Government are accountable, and that the private sector is made accountable, as the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) said. The Information Commissioner has not yet been able to include the private sector in his remit. For example, Network Rail is not yet included; for most people it is a public authority, but it is technically private, and therefore outwith his remit. We really do need answers quickly, because answers much delayed are often not much use. The debate and the justification move on, and so the relevance moves on. I hope that the Secretary of State can assure us that if the commissioner gets this large salary increase for an important job, we will have a much quicker turnaround of complaints from now on.