Councils should be prevented from selling electoral roll data to marketers under a proposal that has emerged from the data-sharing review commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last year reports Brand Republic.
The review was carried out by the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and Dr Mark Walport, the director of the Wellcome Trust. Its final report has now been completed and it calls on the government to overhaul the law on the collection and sharing of personal data in response to "evaporating" public confidence in how personal information is safeguarded.
One of its series of recommendations is that local councils should be prevented from selling edited information collected from their electoral rolls for use in direct marketing.
The Direct Marketing Association has opposed the recommendation, claiming that the edited register is an "essential tool" for marketers to preserve their data accuracy and better target their audience.
Caroline Roberts, the association's director of public and legal affairs, said: "Everyone agrees that direct mail should be correctly targeted and access to the edited electoral register is an efficient way of verifying data to do just that."
Each year the register is updated and people are able to opt-out of being included on the edited register.
The opt-out rate has climbed to 40% in the latest roll, from 20% in 2002 -- the first year in which opt-out was allowed.
The report said that selling electoral roll data sends "a particularly poor message to the public that personal information collected for something as vital as participation in the democratic process can be sold to anyone for any purpose".
Another key recommendation in the report is that the ICO be given the power to impose a £10 fine for each person affected by data breaches or losses. With HMRC having lost two discs containing the details of 25m child benefit claimants last year, the Government itself would have been liable to a £250m fine.
The full report can be seen on the Ministry of Justice website
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