| The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) in the United
Kingdom, is an independent government authority and reports directly to Parliament. The commissioner's role is to be the independent champion of public openness and personal privacy,
particularly in respect of elements of the Data
Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.
Since the appointment of Richard Thomas as Commissioner, the OIC has been particularly noted for raising serious concerns over
the Government's proposed British national
identity card and database, as well as other similar databases such as the Citizen Information Project, Universal Child Database, and the NHS National Programme for IT, stating that the country is in
danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society [1] (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1218615_1,00.html), drawing attention to the misuse
of such information by the former states of the Eastern bloc and Franco's Spain.
Data Protection Act
The United Kingdom as a member of the European Union is subject to a strict regime of Data Protection. The Data Protection Act 1984 created the post of Data
Protection Registrar with whom people processing personal data had to register. Under the provisions of EC
Directive 95/46 (introduced in the UK as the Data
Protection Act 1998, rather than as an SI under the
Single European Act 1986) the name of the post was
changed to the Data Protection Commissioner.
You can search the register of data controllers (http://forms.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/search.html) at the website of the
IC (http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/), which also gives links to his
counterparts around Europe.
Freedom of Information Act
Under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 the Commissioner's role was expanded to include freedom of information and the job title was changed to Information Commissioner ('IC').
List of Information Commissioners
- Richard Thomas (appointed December 2, 2002)
- Elizabeth France (appointed January 30, 2001)
Similar roles in Europe
The role of the IC is mirrored throughout the countries of the European
Union and EEA who have equivalent officials created under their versions of Directive
95/46.
External links
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