Merseyside councils make thousands selling residents' personal data

Sep 23 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE councils have made tens of thousands of pounds selling personal details of residents to credit agencies and marketing organisations – but this could soon be curbed by the Government.

According to information released to the Daily Post under the Freedom of Information Act, the area’s councils have made almost £60,000 over the last five years.

Top of the list was

Wirral Council, which made £13,463 selling the names, addresses and dates of births of all registered electors in the borough over the age of 18.

It comes after Information Commissioner Richard Thomas called for Town Halls to be banned from selling edited versions of the electoral roll to private companies.

Councils compile two versions of the register, known as the full version and the edited version. All those registered to vote will have their details appear on the full version of the register, but you can choose whether or not your details appear on the edited register.

The full register is used for elections and is sold to licensed credit companies for checking applications for credit. The full register is also used by the authorities and police in “preventing and detecting crime”.

The edited register is available for general sale, and can be used for commercial activities such as marketing.

According to Knowsley Council, for example, the information included in the Electoral Register includes Names; Addresses; Dates of Birth of 16/17 year olds; Markers for European Citizens; Overseas Electors and Peers, although St Helens said the information contained in the register is the person’s name and address only.

According to the information released to the Daily Post, the primary customers for the full register of electors are the credit reference companies Equifax, Experian, Call Credit, and Aristotle International.

However, at present, anyone can buy the edited version of the register – but, given the numbers of people who ask for their details to be withheld, councils find it is of little interest to many organisations because it is so incomplete.

For example, Liverpool Council, whose sales to credit referencing agencies of the full version of the register produced a total income in the past five years of £8,144.50; this is exclusive of any monthly updates that may have been requested.

As at December 1, 2007, when the new electoral register was published, there were 326,330 registered electors on the electoral register of Liverpool City Council, of which 85,335 had chosen to omit their details from the edited register, representing 26.15% of the electorate.

Although the edited register is freely available for purchase by the general public, the council said the majority of enquiries received for the purchase of the edited register never result in the sale, once the prospective purchaser realises that this means 26.15% of people’s names are missing.

The Information Commissioner’s proposal to ban the sale of the edited register came as part of an official review, called for by the Prime Minister, into the use of personal data.

He also said it should be easier for the public to keep track of who holds personal information about them.

Mr Thomas said in his report that the sale of personal data in this way was “unsatisfactory”.

He said: “It 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’.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We agree that measures need to be taken to increase public trust and confidence in the handling and processing of personal data by the public and private sectors.

“We will assess the recommendations in the Walport/Thomas Report and issue a more detailed statement once we have had time to fully consider the implications and costs of bringing about such changes.

“I can confirm that the proposal is for a complete ban on the sale of the edited register, which would result in the edited register being abolished.”

liammurphy