TNAG-0679-FCO40-828-Allegations-of-corruption-and-bribery-in-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 202

Privacy

CIVIL LAW

In our last Annual Report we drew attention-not for the first time— to the importance of privacy in our increasingly complex and over- regulated society, and regretted that there were still no signs of the Government paying any serious attention to the notorious gaps in our law. Another year has passed, and still nothing has happened. The Data Protection Committeed, promised in the White Paper "Computers and Privacy" has been appointed and is at work. The Consumer Credit Act 1974, which gives the citizen the right to know why he is refused credit, is in force. But the rest of the Younger Committee's many recommendations remain on the shelf, six years after they were published. There is still no sign of the English Law Commission's final report on Breach of Confidence, originally referred to them four years ago.

This masterly inactivity really cannot go on for ever. The United Kingdom is bound to guarantee privacy to its citizens both under the European Convention (which it ratified in 1951) and under the Inter- national Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it finally ratified last year. There was even a promise to do something about privacy in the Labour Party's manifesto at the last election. Meanwhile a statutory Privacy Committee is doing excellent work in New South Wales, and both the Australian Commonwealth and the Western Australian Law Commissions are working hard on wide-ranging privacy references. There is hardly a civilised country in the world which does not have privacy laws, in force or in preparation.

Of course the subject of privacy is a difficult one, in which there are many conflicting values and interests. But that is precisely why it needs to be regulated by laws which balance those values, and which can resolve the conflict of interests. Although the nettle may be painful to grasp, that is what politicians and governments are for. To continue to ignore a visibly mounting problem will do nothing to enhance their reputation with the ordinary citizen whose private sphere shrinks with every year that passes.

Compensation for Disablement

Here too, we are only able to report that another year has gone by without any ascertainable progress. It is now nearly four years since we submitted our report No Fault on the Roads to the Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injuries, and 4 years since that body was appointed. There are still no signs of its report.

But even when that does appear, and even if it recommends radical changes to mitigate the gross injustices of our system, that will not be the end of the matter. Parliamentary time and will must be found to enact what the Commission recommends. And by that time, many more thousands of uncompensated (or under-compensated) victims will have been added to the roll of those who were already on it when the Commission was first appointed. What will they have to hope for? Will they be included among the beneficiaries of any new compensation scheme, as was proposed in Australia? The cost of including them cannot be great, and the injustice of excluding them would be difficult to explain away.

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