Oral Answers to Questions

Karl McCartney Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Frazer (South East Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

3. What assessment he has made of the importance of communications data in securing prosecutions.

[Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)]

4. What assessment he has made of the importance of communications data in securing prosecutions.

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

8. What assessment he has made of the importance of communications data in securing prosecutions.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Attorney General]

I do agree with my hon. and learned Friend. It is important to recognise that the cases in which evidence of this kind is very significant range well beyond terrorism cases. For example, some 95% of CPS investigations of serious and organised crime involve communications data.

[Karl MᶜCartney]

Can my right hon. and learned Friend assure me that any agency of Government, or indeed Parliament, such as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, should not seek to protect its most senior management from legal action and/or prosecution by claiming that communications data are no longer available after 30 days, but instead should strive to be completely transparent and, when receiving requests for such data, make them available?

[The Attorney General]

Mr Speaker, I am sure you would not want me to wade into the details of that case, and I am obviously not in a position to do so anyway, but I would say that all organisations should take very seriously their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and all other legislation.