A renewed interest in issuing custodial sentences for those who flout data protection law has emerged in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal. In a speech this week, Deputy PM Nick Clegg said those convicted of obtaining personal data by deception should be jailed, BBC News reports. "The Information Commissioner recommended in 2006 that that offence should...attract a custodial sentence," Clegg said. "It wasn't taken up then, and this government has said it will keep it under review. I think that now...there is a case for looking at this issue again." Stewart Room, a partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse in London, told the IAPP Europe Data Protection Digest that the case for introduction of jail sentences for data theft in breach of section 55 of the DPA "has always been compelling." Room said, "The News of the World scandal has captured the public imagination and the Coalition Government will have to react...In my view, it is inconceivable that the government will fail to act. The introduction of jail sentences is now inevitable."
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