The government announced that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce set up to assess the future of electronic National Health Service patient records. Following opposition to the compulsory inclusion of individuals' records, the government said that patients would be given a right of veto before their details were uploaded to the new system.
Source: Press release 18 December 2006, Department of Health (020 7210 4850)
Links: DH press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Times report | FT report
Date: 2006-Dec
A Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament, creating a Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights.
Source: Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum
Date: 2006-Nov
A report published by the watchdog for official information described the development of the 'surveillance society' (defined as one where technology was extensively and routinely used to track and record people's activities and movements). It examined what society would be like in 2016 on existing trends in surveillance.
Source: David Murakami Wood (ed.), A Report on the Surveillance Society, Information Commissioner (01625 545 700)
Links: Report | Information Commissioner press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-Nov
A report by a joint committee of MPs and peers said that the government had fuelled widespread public misunderstandings and myths about the Human Rights Act, and had used it to cover up administrative failings. It also criticized the government's attempts to get round human rights safeguards as part of its counter-terror strategy.
Source: The Human Rights Act: The DCA and Home Office Reviews, Thirty-second Report (Session 2005-06), HC 1716 and HL 278, Joint Committee on Human Rights (House of Lords and House of Commons) Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Help the Aged press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Times report
Date: 2006-Nov
The government said that the national identity card scheme would cost £5.4 billion, including all set-up and operational costs, over the period 2006-2016. Researchers said that the report failed to disclose much information that would aid understanding of the process, and did little to increase public confidence in the scheme.
Source: Identity Cards Act 2006: First Section 37 Report to Parliament about the Likely Costs of the ID Cards Scheme, Home Office (0870 000 1585) | , Analysis of Home Office Costs Report of October 2006, Department of Information Systems/London School of Economics (020 7955 7060)
Links: Report | Home Office press release | Conservative Party press release | IPPR press release | BBC report | Times report | Guardian report | LSE report | LSE press release
Date: 2006-Oct
A think-tank report said that the costs of too little data-sharing across the public sector far outweighed the potential risks involved. Citizens should be placed at the centre of any data-sharing policy, so that they had the power to oversee the actions of those who handled their personal data and were able to opt in and out of data-sharing practices.
Source: Alex Karalis Isaac and Claudia Wood, Who Shares Wins? Transforming the public services with intelligent information, Social Market Foundation (020 7222 7060)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Oct
The government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on counter-terrorism policy and human rights. It said that it welcomed the emphasis placed by the committee on the government s responsibility to prevent terrorist attacks.
Source: Government Reply to the Twenty-Fourth Report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights: 'Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights', Cm 6920, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Date: 2006-Oct
A report by a joint committee of MPs and peers said that there was an increasingly urgent need to devise new mechanisms of independent accountability and oversight of the security and intelligence agencies, and of government claims based on intelligence information.
Source: Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights: Prosecution and pre-charge detention, Twenty-fourth Report (Session 2005-06), HC 1576 and HL 240, Joint Committee on Human Rights (House of Lords and House of Commons) Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said that government plans to introduce identity cards were 'inconsistent' and 'lacking clarity'. It expressed scepticism about the estimated costs of the scheme, and said that there was public confusion about identity cards because of lack of information.
Source: Identity Card Technologies: Scientific advice, risk and evidence, Sixth Report (Session 2005-06), HC 1032, House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Information Commissioner press release | LSE press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Aug
Campaigners said that DNA samples retained by the police were being used for controversial genetic studies without the consent of the people involved.
Source: Using the Police National DNA Database: Under adequate control?, GeneWatch UK (01298 871898)
Links: Briefing | GeneWatch press release | Observer report
Date: 2006-Jul
The government announced a 24-point package of criminal justice reforms, including the provision of a further 8,000 prison places and longer sentences for the most serious criminals. It cancelled plans to introduce a 'custody plus' sentence which would have allowed 60,000 less serious offenders each year to leave after a short spell of imprisonment. It proposed abandoning the regime under which judges automatically halved the sentence tariffs for dangerous offenders on new indeterminate or unlimited sentences. An automatic one-third sentence discount for those who entered an early guilty plea would also be scrapped. But the government said that it would not seek to amend the Human Rights Act.
Source: Rebalancing the Criminal Justice System in Favour of the Law-abiding Majority: Cutting crime, reducing reoffending and protecting the public, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report | Home Office press release | Parole Board press release | Howard League press release | ACPO press release | YMCA press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Times report | FT report
Date: 2006-Jul
The government published the results of a review of the implementation of the Human Rights Act. It said that it remained fully committed to the European Convention of Human Rights, and to the Human Rights Act 1998: but it would legislate if necessary to ensure agencies gave proper weight to public protection. New guidance on human rights would be issued for government departments and agencies, making it clear that public safety should be paramount.
Source: Review of the Implementation of the Human Rights Act, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Summary | DCA press release | Help the Aged press release | JUSTICE press release | Times report | BBC report
Date: 2006-Jul
A report said that the Human Rights Act played an important role in protecting ordinary people, whose cases rarely made the headlines. But the leader of the opposition Conservative Party said that he would devise a "British bill of rights" to replace the Human Rights Act.
Source: The Human Rights Act: Separating the fact from the fiction, Liberty (020 7403 3888) | The Guardian, 26 June 2006
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jun
The watchdog for official information said that secret government estimates of the benefits and risks of identity cards had to be published.
Source: Decision notice 5 June 2006, Information Commissioner (01625 545 700)
Links: Decision notice | BBC report
Date: 2006-Jun
The data protection watchdog called for prison sentences of up to two years for the illegal buying and selling of personal information.
Source: What Price Privacy? The unlawful trade in confidential personal information, Information Commissioner, HC 1056, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2006-May
The Prime Minister asked the Home Secretary to examine whether primary legislation was needed to "address the issue" of court rulings which overruled government decisions by reference to human rights legislation. He also called for a "profound rebalancing" of the debate on civil liberties.
Source: Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister), Letter 15 May 2006 to John Reid MP (Home Secretary)
Links: Letter | PMOS briefing | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3)
Date: 2006-May
The Identity Cards Act was given Royal assent. The Act provided for a national identity scheme which would link basic personal information, such as name and address, to secure biometrics - a computer image of a person's iris, face or fingerprints. Identity cards would be compulsory for new passport holders from 2010. A new agency, called the Identity and Passport Service, would issue passports and identity cards, and would become operational on 1 April 2006. The government reportedly said that it planned legislation after the next election to make it compulsory for everyone to get a card, whether or not they had a passport.
Source: Identity Cards Act 2006, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | BBC report, 30 March 2006
Links: Home Office press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Mar
The High Court approved a consent order under which the police agreed to destroy the fingerprints, DNA sample, and photograph of a teacher who had been accused of hitting a child but who had not been prosecuted.
Source: The Guardian, 23 March 2006
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2006-Mar
Campaigners said that there was a "dangerous imbalance" between the draconian actions the United Kingdom was taking in the name of security and its obligation to protect human rights.
Source: United Kingdom - Human Rights: A Broken Promise, Amnesty International UK (020 7814 6241)
Links: Report | Amnesty press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-Feb
A report by a committee of MSPs examined the Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill. The committee, although making clear its commitment to ensuring the continuing protection of human rights in Scotland, questioned what added value a Commissioner could bring.
Source: Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill, 1st Report 2006, SP Paper 508, Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report part 1 | Report part 2 | SP press release
Date: 2006-Feb
A report criticized the government and the police for misleading the public about the benefits of retaining DNA samples from large numbers of innocent people.
Source: The DNA Expansion Programme: Reporting real achievement?, GeneWatch UK (01298 871898)
Links: Report | GeneWatch press release
Date: 2006-Feb
The government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on the definition of 'public authority' under the Human Rights Act 1998. The government had intended the meaning of public authority under section 6 to be interpreted broadly: but the relevant criteria to determine whether a particular body was performing public functions were not always clear from case law.
Source: The Human Rights Act 1998: The Definition of 'Public Authority' – Government Response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights' Ninth Report of Session 2006-07, Cm 7726, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Date: 2006-Jan
A report criticized the government over the secrecy of the identity card planning process, conflicting statements made by the Home Office, and a disregard for Parliament's right to consider important costs and facts related to the scheme. It recommended that planning for the ID card be removed from the Home Office and given to the Treasury.
Source: The Identity Project: Research Status Report, Department of Information Systems/London School of Economics (020 7955 7060)
Links: Report | LSE press release
Date: 2006-Jan
The Identity Documents Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to abolish the identity cards scheme and the National Identity Register.
Source: Identity Documents Bill, Home Office/TSO | Debate 9 June 2010, columns 345-434, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | HOC research brief | NO2ID press release
Date: 2006-Jan
A report called for the opposition Conservative party to drop its opposition to the Human Rights Act.
Source: Jesse Norman and Peter Oborne, Churchill's Legacy: The Conservative case for the Human Rights Act, Liberty (020 7403 3888)
Links: Report | Liberty press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jan
A new book examined the relationship between the Human Rights Act, human rights principles, and the common law.
Source: Tom Hickman, Public Law after the Human Rights Act, Hart Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Jan