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Data Protection and Freedom of Information

With the leave of the House, I shall respond to the points made. First, on the level of the salary, my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) asked why we were debating the salary of one individual. We are doing so because of a statutory provision. When the Freedom of Information Bill was going through the House, the House was anxious, as were the Government, that this individual should be an officer of Parliament, not a creature of the Government. Although there has to be a strong relationship between the Information Commissioner and the so-called sponsoring Department, which is mine, the salary and much else is set by the House. There may be better ways of setting the salary in future. All I say is that if other salaries were set in this way, including those in the BBC, we would not see the most ludicrous salaries paid on the most ludicrous non-justifications. The chief executive of the BBC is paid an astonishing £800,000 on the grounds that it is the market rate—a market that is set entirely by the BBC.