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Blacklisting (Construction Industry)

I have already received a letter from one of the companies that have been mentioned, dissociating itself from the activity and claiming that it did not realise that it was buying into it. I will revert to that. We reiterated our position that we would not consider implementing the regulations until clear evidence arose. That was the position in 2003. The investigation began in the middle of last year, when my Department learned that the Information Commissioner was investigating allegations of blacklisting. My officials were involved at an early stage and worked with the Information Commissioner's office. I pay tribute to those in that office for their diligence in pursuing a complex investigation. As my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, West and Penistone described, significant abuse of the data protection principles and data protection law was uncovered. TCA has secretly listed more than 3,300 individuals and kept more detailed information on 1,600 of them.