The measure has been put in place to prevent the re-use of
payment cards to purchase child pornography and is explicitly
limited only to that situation. Though the Information
Commissioner's office mostly backs the change, it believes that it
goes too far in one key respect.
"We were not persuaded that the part about administering the
account was necessary," said a spokeswoman for the Information
Commissioner. The Commissioner was consulted by the Home Office on
the draft of the Home Secretary's Order amending the Act.
The draft Order says: "The processing of information about a
criminal conviction or caution for an offence listed in paragraph
(3) relating to an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a
child is necessary for the purpose of administering an account
relating to the payment card used in the commission of the offence
or for cancelling that payment card".
"We think it would have been enough to confiscate the card,"
said the spokeswoman, who confirmed that this would leave a person
with an account but without the physical card that went with
it.
The term 'payment card' in the legislation refers to credit
cards and to debit cards, so the 'account' mentioned could be a
full bank account, and not just a credit card account.
The measure has been established to prevent the use of credit
cards to purchase child pornography at the request of payments body
APACS. An APACS spokeswoman said that the information could only go
to the issuer of a card used for an offence. "There is nothing to
stop that person going to another bank for another card," she
said.
