The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has responded to a Parliamentary report on surveillance and has agreed with the Commons Home Affairs Committee that it should produce an annual review of surveillance.
The ICO has also said that there should be an annual Parliamentary debate on surveillance. It said that it was already in negotiation with the Ministry of Justice on the publishing of an annual report.
"One of the ICO’s key concerns in the development and use of surveillance is that advances in technology were leading to greater and more intrusive use of personal information without proper debate about the implications for the individual and society. This recommendation [that there be an annual report] helps to address this concern," said the ICO's response to the Home Affairs Committee's report.
The ICO said that its powers under the Data Protection Act allowed it to produce a report, but only on some of the areas of concern. It would not, it said, include anything to do with wiretap law the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
"Without a widening of these powers any report will have to focus on our statutory remit relating to personal information handling. It would be difficult for a report produced by the ICO to cover other areas, for example RIPA authorisations, particularly as other bodies are responsible for their statutory oversight," said the ICO. "We have already had some preliminary discussions with the Ministry of Justice on the practicalities and resource implications of providing an annual report. We have agreed to submit proposals to them outlining the basis on which this work can be taken forward.
The ICO said that transparency was important, and that the Government should be clearer about what it will use collected data for.
"Government should be more open about its intentions in relation to collecting personal information," it said. "This is of particular importance as in the vast majority of cases, the citizen does not have a genuine choice about what personal information is collected by Government."
The ICO's response to the Select Committee report said that while information technology had made the creation of massive databases easier, advances in IT are now making it possible to reduce reliance on databases.
"We also welcome the recommendation that Government adopt a principle of data minimisation in its policy and in the design of its systems," it said. "This is of particular relevance as technologies have now advanced to such an extent that the collection, storage and use of large amounts of personal information are no longer necessary in many cases for service delivery."
"Better use of different identity management approaches, more advanced forms of information assurance and technologies that authenticate rights to services rather than identify individuals may bring the days of the large scale “dinosaur databases” to an end," it said. "Greater use and more effective exploitation of these technologies would begin to address the concerns raised in the report about retaining personal information and also help mitigate security concerns."
