Investigatory Powers Bill — Clause 203 — Protection of Disclosures to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner — 6 Jun 2016 at 20:01

David Simpson MP, Upper Bann voted against additional protections against prosecutions for disclosing information to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

The majority of MPs voted against additional protections against prosecutions for disclosing information to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

MPs were considering the Investigatory Powers Bill.[1]

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

  • Amendment 482, page 159, line 2, at end insert—
  • ‘(1A) A disclosure pursuant to subsection (1) will not constitute a criminal offence for any purposes in this Act or in any other enactment.
  • (1B) In subsection (1), a disclosure for the purposes of any function of the Commissioner may be made at the initiative of the person making the disclosure and without need for request by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.”

The proposed amendment was accompanied by the following explanatory statement

  • This amendment would make it clear that voluntary, unsolicited disclosures are protected, and that any whistle-blower is also protected from criminal prosecution.

Had it not been rejected the amendment would have added the above new subclauses to Clause 203[2] of the Bill. The clause as it stood was titled Information gateway and stated:

  • (1) A disclosure of information to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner or another Judicial Commissioner for the purposes of any function of the

Commissioner does not breach—

  • (a) an obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure,
  • or
  • (b) any other restriction on the disclosure of information (whether imposed by virtue of this Act or otherwise).
  • (2) But subsection (1) does not apply to a disclosure, in contravention of any provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998, of personal data which is not exempt from those provisions.

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Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con273 (+2 tell) 0083.3%
DUP6 0075.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 1033.3%
Lab0 100.4%
LDem0 7087.5%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 50 (+2 tell)096.3%
UUP0 02100.0%
Total:279 65254.4%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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